Naruto: The Great Ninja War
by LunaSphere
Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on his training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. Meanwhile, the ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina, maybe others.
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

Justification: I really enjoyed Naruto anime/manga, but am currently quite unhappy with it. The manga's plot has become too stretched out and character development has become non-existant—the rookie 9 have been ditched and new characters like Sai are thrown in pell-mell without the kind of decent characterization devoted to earlier characters. Every single female ninja besides Tsunade seems to be a throw-away ninja who can't do shit (although I do admit Sakura appears to have finally gotten her act together). I haven't bothered to watch the filler anime episodes, and am just keeping up with the manga to get some damn closure on the whole story, and it seems that won't be happening for another few years. And so, I've decided to take the plot into my own hands.

Therefore, this story is AU. It takes place **AFTER** Naruto leaves for his training trip. It's been a few months since he left with Jiraiya.

Also, if you are interested in fight scenes, you shall be disappointed. I don't watch Naruto for the battles and know nothing about fighting, therefore, they will be kept brief. If anyone's interested in doing a collaboration so that there are descriptive fight scenes, please send me an email.

Also credit goes to **Sgamer82** for the idea of Hinata as diplomat. I was inspired in part by the story Ghostly Eyes and its sequel Diplomacy (both of which I recommend) in which Hinata becomes a part of the diplomatic corps of Konoha. I thought it suited her.  
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Hyuuga Hinata had found the least likely place for training and the least likely teacher to help her. Really, it hadn't even started out as training. Well, at least not as training her ninja skills. She was writing up a history of trade treaties established during the past three decades between Rain and Leaf while sitting in the abandoned fiction section of the Konoha Public Library. It was the kind of busy work the heads of the Diplomacy Corps gave to rookies like her to break them in. They figured if she didn't drown in the sea of paper, then maybe, just maybe she was worth the effort of training.

She still wasn't sure how she had ended up with the Diplomacy Corps in the first place, but the Hokage herself had recommended Hinata for the job and this had gone a long way in boosting her confidence. Or at least it convinced her she had no choice but to do it. Although, honestly, Hinata suspected Sakura had her hand in this somewhere. After Naruto had complimented that ointment she'd given him during the prelims of the Chuunin Exam, Hinata had been convinced that medic-nin was the specialization for her. Then she actually started working in the hospital so that she could learn the basics and hopefully find a jounin level medic-nin to train under. The first two weeks observing in the ER had put an end to that experience.

Hinata was a ninja. She could deal with pain, with blood. She could deal with these things being inflicted on her and if she hardened her heart, she could deal with inflicting these things on her opponents. During the course of a mission or while protecting her precious people (another phrase she'd picked up from Naruto), she could inflict all sorts of damage on her adversaries without remorse. As she watched Inuzuka Hana get treated for third-degree burns all over her body after a run-in with a Grass-nin during her mission, Hinata realized she could not stand seeing that kind of pain day after day in the hospital. Hinata knew Hana. She'd come meet Kiba when Team 8 returned from missions sometimes, and always she'd bring a small snack for each of them and a bone for Akamaru. And now Hinata was watching Hana's face contort in pain as a team of medic-nins tried to heal her blackened and bloody skin. She saw the desperate look on the medic-nin's face. Hana's condition was getting worse.

Ninja kill. Ninja get killed. Hinata knew this. But she could not live in the face of this truth every single day as she would have to if she became a medic-nin. She was too weak.

"I'm a weakling. A stupid weakling," she thought as she watched Hana lying on the operating table. She'd decided to become a medic-nin because Naruto had liked her ointment. That thought seemed so frivolous now; it seemed like an insult to Hana somehow. She couldn't take it anymore. Hinata rushed out of the room.

She escaped to the hospital roof and breathed in the air in gulps as if she were drowning. That's when she ran into Sakura who had been taking her lunch break up there. Hinata was so distraught that when Sakura's green eyes looked up at her with concern, Hinata did something she had never done in her life before: she sobbed into Sakura's shoulder. As a Hyuuga she had learned early that showing emotion publicly was a humiliation not to be borne. Sobbing in the Hyuuga compound was one thing—certainly it added to her father's conviction that she was weak—but Hinata had never violated the taboo of crying before someone outside the clan. Crying out in pain was a weakness of the body to be trained out but it was forgivable. Crying from emotions in front of others was unforgivable.

And Sakura, who had been shocked at first, just sat patiently, patting Hinata's back as the storm passed until Hinata finally spilled out the entire tangled mess before her: _Hana was dying and somehow it was Hinata's fault. She hadn't taken training for being a medic-nin seriously. She was just chasing shadows of Naruto. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. She wanted to prove herself, prove her way of the ninja. But she didn't know how._

As Hinata spoke, everything seemed to come into focus. Yes she would still prove her way of the ninja: she would not go back on her word. She would complete the basic first-aid training. Then she would prove herself. She would become strong for_ herself_.

"Don't take it to heart," Sakura said just as Hinata was about to start berating herself again. "I did the same thing. Chasing Sasuke, always trying to get noticed by Sasuke, I never realized that if I had become a good kunoichi, maybe he would have noticed. So now, I'm becoming a strong ninja, so I can help save him. You wanted to help someone too. Being a medic-nin just might not be the best way for you to do that is all."

Sakura, Naruto, all the rookie 9 but her were facing forward, were getting stronger and she was just chasing shadows. Hinata swore then to make words into actions. She would become a strong ninja, a ninja would could one day support the people who were important to her.

Hana lived. She had terrible scars all over her back and right arm.  
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Even after Hinata finished her two month training in basic first-aid and chakra healing, she would stop by the hospital during lunchtime if she could and ate with Sakura. She felt awkward at first, exposed after her emotional outburst that first day. But Sakura was as close to "normal teenage girl" as a kunoichi could really be and to her Hinata's crying fit was nothing extraordinary.

Sakura often felt awkward too, but for entirely different reasons. It seemed as if Hinata was on another level entirely. As heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she had been raised with the manners of nobility—Hell, even the way she held her chopsticks was refined! "But," Sakura mused to herself, "there's more to it than just manners…"

Just then as if to prove the point, Hinata snapped Sakura out of her daze by saying, "Sakura, is something the matter?"

"That's just it!" yelled Sakura. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to destroy your hearing or anything. Anyone else would have nagged me and said 'Are you even listening to me?' Or maybe 'Quit spacing out!'"

"Ah, well I thought that if you were distracted, it would be over something important."

"Gah. You're doing it again. Now it's like I should feel guilty if I wasn't thinking of something important. Even though you never came out and said it that way! It's like you have the perfect way of speaking. Of not giving things away unless someone reads between the lines. Ok, so anyway, what were you saying?"  
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At the time, Hinata had simply disregarded the exchange as idle lunchtime chatter, but now as she stretched out the kinks in her neck from five straight hours of research she felt somehow sure that that conversation was at the root of her present situation.

Hinata was closer to the mark than she realized. In fact, it seemed that Hinata had accrued good lunchtime conversation karma:

"Ah, Sakura. My schedule's really tight today, so I'm going to have to postpone your lesson on surgical chakra manipulation but we can discuss the theory over lunch."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade always liked to indulge in at least a little personal conversation with Sakura not only to know her student better but also to keep herself informed about lower-rank ninja life. As Hokage, she hardly had time to chat to genins all and sundry, but at least by talking to Sakura she could get a glimpse into their lives. And so after the lecture, when Sakura brought up the Hyuuga heiress, Tsunade was particularly curious. After all, the Hyuuga were the strongest clan of the Leaf and if that Hinata girl realized the promise that Kurenai claimed she showed, Tsunade would be dealing with her as the head of the clan in the future.

"I'm surprised that you've become friends with her so quickly. Even her jounin instructor says the girl's too shy."

"Oh, now that we know each other better, Hinata's not so shy at all. In fact, she has just the right level of reserve: always polite but assertive, attentive but not easily swayed in her opinions, candid but not given to confession unless I press for details. I end up feeling like some kind of ignorant boor by comparison at times," Sakura laughed.

"Hmm. Is that so?" As Hokage, Tsuande's mind worked like a fill-in-the-blank section of an exam. And one of the current blanks was in the Diplomacy Corps, which oversaw the negotiation of treaties with other Villages. A well-trained diplomat-nin was as much a sign of the strength of a Village as the skill of its combat ninja. The ideal diplomat-nin would be a strong ninja with sophisticated manners and the ability to negotiate in favor of the Villagewithout giving away vital information about the Village. Training to become a diplomat-nin took a long time and it wasn't glamorous ninja training so it didn't attract many teenagers. So, while the jobs were high-ranking, the department was perpetually understaffed. The girl mostly likely already possessed the flawless Hyuuga manners. If she could get over her crippling shyness…Well, Tsunade would recommend her to the Diplomacy Corps and leave it up to them accept the girl or not.  
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Hinata's schedule had gotten hectic with the added work from the Diplomacy Corps, her usual missions with Team 8, her team training, and then family training. Her father had all but given up on her, saying that if she couldn't devote enough time to learning the Hyuuga fighting style, he certainly wouldn't waste his time attempting to teach someone like her. Hinata was trying to keep up by studying scrolls from the Hyuuga private library, but it was an uphill battle. The Diplomacy Corps couldn't spare the personnel to train her in fighting, and now that Team 8 had made chuunin, Kurenai-sensei didn't have the time to train them either.

Adjusting to an entirely new type of ninja skills had been hard at first, but it helped that that everyone in the Diplomacy Corps had been friendly. Well, perhaps that wasn't quite accurate. They were polite, helpful. They were not-hostile, unlike her family. And that was all she had needed. She was determined to do everything they asked of here, even if it was just paper-shuffling for now.

As Hinata walked around the Konoha Public Library to stretch her legs, she realized just how strongly she wanted to make this work. To be honest, she didn't feel compelled to continue in the Diplomacy Corps just because the Hokage had recommended her. She felt compelled because someone had recognized her, had seen something of value in her. Someone thought she could be good at this. And she would prove that she was.

"Oh my. May I help you?" a voice intruded on Hinata's reflections. It belonged to a elderly woman dressed in stereotypical librarian garb: a long black skirt, collared white shirt, and brown vest.

"Oh no, I was just walking around."

"Are you sure? No one usually comes to the fiction section, but there are some really interesting books here."

"Ah well, maybe I will. I could use something to relax."

"Relax? Then I would certainly recommend this one," the said woman proffered a book.

"Thank you," Hinata replied as she took the book and started cleaning up her papers to call it a day. "Ms.?"

"How silly, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Yomiko Readman."

And that is how Hyuuga Hinata met Yomiko Readman, the mysterious legendary ninja known as _The Paper_, and soon to be her new teacher.  
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_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on his training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. Meanwhile, the ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina, maybe others.  
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As far as Hinata was aware, Yomiko was simply a librarian. They got to know each other fairly well considering Hinata often spent a couple of hours each day at the library researching, and yet she had no idea as to who Yomiko really was until she stumbled across a reference to the retired ninja in _Chronicles of Significant Missions in Rain_:

_The operative _The Paper_ on a solo S-rank mission accomplished the retrieval of the valuable classified which had been stolen by the Rain thirty years prior. For unstated reasons, however, soon after this mission _The Paper_ retired from shinobi life._

Curious, Hinata had looked more into _The Paper_ until finally in a directory titled_The Ninja Calling Card_, she found out her identity. This gentle woman who had a seemingly endless list of books to recommend, who chatted happily about novels, who seemed as shy and unprepossessing as Hinata herself was the ruthless and skilled ninja_The Paper_?.! The word shock could not do justice to all that Hinata felt at that moment of clarity.

Just then, Yomiko appeared before her asking "Oh, Hinata are you finished for today?"

Why hadn't Hinata noticed earlier that this woman moved so quietly she had to be a shinobi? Her very evasiveness showed how skilled a ninja she was. Hinata didn't know what to say. She could hardly start gushing like a rabid fan about how amazing she thought _The Paper_ had been. There had to be some kind of strong personal reason Yomiko had stopped fighting. And it certainly wasn't Hinata's place to inquire. All sense of decorum required that Hinata not bring up what she had learned about the woman indirectly. Since Yomiko hadn't even dropped hints about once being a ninja, Hinata shouldn't bring up what she had discovered. But now that she knew the truth, Hinata couldn't pretend that she wasn't aware of the woman's skill and identity. Even if it would be an awkward, even if Yomiko said no, Hinata had to ask. Not doing so would be going back on her ninja way. She had sworn she would make words into deeds. That she would become a strong kunoichi who could support her friends, her family, her village.

With all this in mind, Hinata looked up at Yomiko from where she was seated and said "Ms. Readman, could you train me?"

While Yomiko looked at her in surprise, Hinata continued "I know you've retired from active shinobi duty and I have no right to ask you to teach me. But I need to get stronger. Please!"

Yomiko was surprised by the determination she could see in the girl's pale eyes. Although Yomiko hardly wanted to be a ninja again, Hinata had been so polite and considerate she didn't have the heart to say no. "Ah, well maybe I could teach you some of the basics of Paper Using. Only the basics though. And it all depends on why you want to be stronger."

So Hinata explained again. How she was weak; how she was the heiress to the strongest clan; how the strongest clan was broken in two and slowly poisoning itself to death; how it was her fault that her talented cousin suffered under the cursed seal; how she had given up on herself in the academy until she saw a boy who the entire village had given up on but who still kept fighting. How she started chasing shadows of that boy and lost her own path. How she desperately wanted to find that path so she could be a strong shinobi who could lend strength to her precious people.

"You will, Hinata," was all that Yomiko said in response as she smiled kindly at her. "Now, the most important skill for Paper Using is chakra control. You need to embed the smallest trace of your chakra in each sheet of paper so that you can mould it into any shape, strength, and texture you want. In this way, paper can become your weapon, your disguise, or your mode of escape. Let me demonstrate."

Paper flowed out of the loose sleeves of Yomiko's overcoat. The first sheet looked like nothing more than a regular piece of paper but when Yomiko flicked it at a bookshelf, it embedded into the wood half-way through. Disbelieving, Hinata got up to touch it; that flimsy sheet of paper was hard as steel and so sharp Hinata had a cut from merely tracing her finger along it. The next sheet, Yomiko fashioned into a paper bird which flapped around Hinata.

"Cute, isn't it? They're good for delivering messages. It can be a little exhausting over long distances since they're chakra manipulated but they have the advantage of self-destruction if they fall in the wrong hands. You can also do this on a larger scale and create paper puppets for manipulation. I wouldn't recommend it, however, because that requires that you carry great amounts of paper with you at all times. I usually carried a suitcase worth of books with me to use but I don't think that would suit your Hyuuga fighting-style. For this first lesson, try putting a little bit of chakra into the paper and see if you can change its shape and texture so that it's like a handkerchief."

Hinata struggled with it for hours. Yomiko had disappeared somewhere into the library as soundlessly as she usually did, while a pile of crumpled or disintegrated paper began building next to Hinata. Too little chakra and nothing happened. Too much chakra and the paper crumpled. Way too much chakra and the paper exploded. Yomiko had told Hinata that simply blank sheets of paper would not work. They had to be something—books, letters, even money would work. But Hinata didn't feel right destroying the Konoha Public library. And so her extensive stacks of notes on her latest research for the Diplomacy Corps were slowly starting to shrink. She only needed to hand in the completed report to the department, but it still hurt to destroy the only physical indication of hours of work. But it didn't matter. She had to become stronger..

The next day, Hinata rushed to the library. "Ms. Readman! I did it!"

Yomiko smiled wistfully at her eager student. She had once had such simple pleasure in learning too…"The next thing is to train in endurance. I learned from some an interesting set of sisters that a good training method is to make your clothes entirely out of paper. It'll help you practice fine manipulation and increase your stamina because you wouldn't want it all to collapse while you're standing in the middle of the street. Once you can manage that, try changing the paper texture from cloth to steel. See if you can fashion chakra-embedded-paper into shuriken, kunai, or any other weapons you're familiar with."  
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Over the next few weeks, it became obvious to Hinata that these lessons were taxing on Yomiko, that manipulating paper recalled painful memories for her and so Hinata was determined to practice as much on her own as she could. Her days fell into a steady pattern, yet instead of monotony, she felt she felt a sense of advancing each day. She would wake at 5 AM and begin going through the Jyuuken katas in one of the smaller gardens as the sun came up, followed by Hyuuga training at 5:30. While Hiashi had given up on her, apparently Neji had not. His fight with Naruto seemed to have changed him. Or at least, it had allowed him to change himself. And so he would devote an hour to sparring with his cousin every morning. He was still cold, aloof, and harsh. He would be quick to criticize and rarely gave approval. But as regular as clockwork, every morning he would appear at the garden he knew Hinata trained in and spend one hour working with her. Hinata was Hyuuga enough to understand what Neji's daily appearance said even though Neji himself was silent: even if he could not forgive the Main house, he had forgiven her and this training was his apology.

Her Hyuuga training, however, was not limited to fighting alone. A calming and meditative shower, a simple breakfast and then at 8 AM every morning, she would shadow one Hyuuga elder or another for the morning and learn the way the estate ran. Hinata knew that both Neji and Hanabi were being taught all this as well and instead of feeling suffocated by competition, the thought comforted her a little. Even if she did fail, there were others would make sure the Hyuuga would carry on successfully. She learned about the clan's day-to-day affairs: finances, interaction with other clans, politics within the clan, even how the household ran, in short all the things the head of the clan needed to be aware of even if he or she wasn't familiar with it.

Promptly at 10 AM she would begin her work at the Diplomacy Corps office. After that initially rocky few months, it appeared that they had accepted her. At least she had other work beyond the never-ending research on past treaties. She was still just a paper-pusher, filling out the forms and writing reports but now they were at least relevant. As she began working on her first important report for the office—it was a memo that would go directly to the Hokage on the recent negotiations between the Leaf and the Lord of the Fire Country—Hinata realized that what she had taken as busy work was actually vital background training.

She had to be completely familiar what kind of treaties, negotiations, and relations the Leaf had with all its neighbors in the recent past before she could begin to understand the complexity of modifying those agreements in the present. While her job was still minor (after all, she was merely recording what the higher echelons of the Diplomacy Corps had accomplished in their latest negotiations), they_were_ training her in roundabout sort of way. And if the report she was working on was deemed acceptable, they would allow her to attend some of their missions as chuunin guard and scribe. But for now, bookwork was all she had.

Hinata looked forward to eating lunch with Sakura at the hospital whenever she could make it fit her schedule as that was the one break into frivolity she would have in her entire day. She had never had a close female friend before and so when she was with Sakura, Hinata often felt as if she'd missed a vital part of growing up. It wasn't that Sakura was shallow or anything like that. Certainly, the girl was focused and probably the most talented kunoichi of their year (to think, she was training under the legendary Tsunade-sama!), but she had an appreciation for normal teenage things that Hinata was entirely unfamiliar with—gossip, fashion, simply having fun. Eating a simple lunch and chatting with Sakura about how Hinata planned on altering her ninja outfit was an enjoyable although entirely alien pastime for Hinata.

After lunch, Sakura would return to the hospital and Hinata would leave to either train with her team or go on missions until evening. It was always refreshing to practice Kiba and Shino again since they didn't see each other as much as they did in their genin days. While they hardly discussed their personal lives with each other, over the course of countless D-rank missions as genin, they had developed an easy familiarity with each other. Thrown together by chance, they had had to spend so much time with each other as genin that they had developed a closeness that didn't depend on common interests or personal tastes, like siblings in a way—or a least like what Hinata imagined good sibling relations to be like.

Her own strained relationship with Hanabi was hardly comparable to the easy camaraderie she shared with Team 8. A couple of hours of training a day or maybe a mission with one or the other was all that Hinata saw of either Kiba or Shino anymore. As chuunin, they were usually given individual or pair assignments and it was rare for all three of them to get assigned on any one mission; if that did happen, it tended to be a prolonged mission that could last for days.

Strictly formal family dinners, and then hours at the library completing her diplomacy research, or practicing Paper Using late into the night rounded out Hinata's daily routine. Shortly before the library's closing time, Hinata would hunt out Yomiko, show her progress and get new instructions. She still hadn't quite mastered the paper-clothing thing yet. After the first few failed attempts in her room, she decided to wear a Spartan ninja outfit—black shorts and sports bra—and mould chakra-paper clothing on top of it. This way, even if the chakra-paper failed to hold up, she wouldn't be humiliated. After all, most kunoichi wore much more revealing clothes than that. But it was embarrassing enough for her that it gave her incentive to keep her chakra-paper clothes together.

After talking with Sakura, Hinata had designed a simple outfit for herself. Loose, mid-calf length black pants and a a beige and dark blue jacket that wasn't quite as shapeless as her old one. Granted it wasn't that different from her genin outfit, but for Hinata it was a significant change. Sakura kept insisting on something less conservative—"maybe a skirt, more color, anything but all that monochrome, Hinata!" So far, Hinata had been able to put her off by saying her control over paper wasn't fine enough for anything too fancy.

That was something of a lie though. She was getting better and the only difficulty she had now was getting the several sheets of paper that composed her outfit to blend together seamlessly. Soon she might even be able to move onto chakra-paper shuriken and kunai. And just the other day, Neji had come as close to complimenting her on her fighting as he ever would—"You are showing some improvement, Hinata-sama." Her chakra control and stamina had increased so much from having to maintain the clothes that her Jyuuken improve in leaps and bounds as well.

Hinata was moving forward, one step at a time..  
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_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.  
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The Leaf was working out a new trade agreement concerning grain importation with the Lord of the Fire Country. Now usually, this is the stuff boredom is made of, but for Hinata, it was going to be her first real mission as a diplomat-nin in training. While at first, it seemed odd that ninja would be involved in something as civilian as grain trading agreements, Hinata had learned during her time at the Diplomacy Corps that sending a civilian to negotiate with the Lord of a country was not only an insult to the Lord but a show of weakness on the part of the village. Part of a diplomat-nin's mission after all was advertising—they were representatives of the Leaf. They had to show its strength. Yet even still, this particular mission was negligible; a borderline C-rank diplomacy mission. And that was why Hinata was allowed to go. She had trained under the Diplomacy Corps for a year and a half now, but she was no where near good enough to handle anything higher than that unsupervised. While she was a chuunin as far as combat and skill went, in terms of diplomacy training, she was still something of an advanced genin.

Hinata had been attending various lower-level diplomacy missions after her first few months of training, usually as a chuunin guard and scribe, but now for the first time she would be heading such a mission on her own. It was a test really. The Diplomacy Corps wanted to measure how much she had learned and see if she was worth the effort of investing more time and training. If she was able to negotiate a favorable price for grain for the Leaf, then in the future, she would be allowed to observe B- and A-rank missions. She might even serve as chuunin guard/scribe/observer for meetings between Kages and Lords! And one day, when Naruto became Hokage, she would be working beside him. In the background yes, but she would be one of the many people working hard so that Naruto's village would run smoothly. One day she would support the Leaf, the Hokage, Naruto.

A shadow fell across Hinata's face, snapping her out of her daydream.

"Ah, Hinata! I'm so sorry, my lesson with Tsunade-sama ran a bit late. I hope you weren't waiting too long," Sakura panted as she leaned against the door to the hospital roof, holding her lunch in one hand.

"It's all right, I understand. I'm going to be leaving on another long mission tomorrow. I probably won't be back for another week and a half or so."

"That's one hell of a long mission!"

"The Diplomacy Corps keep assuring me that most of it is ceremonial detail. I'm just going for a grain negotiation treaty, but starting next week the Fire Country's summer festivals start and people from all different countries attend. Since I'll be there anyway, they said it would look good if they could have me double as the Leaf representative."

"Oh, to interest more clients so they hire from the Leaf instead of elsewhere?"

"Yup. So they said it has to be strictly business."

"Well then," Sakura said with a gleam in her eye, "that raises the all important question of what are you going to wear!"

"Isn't my usual good enough?"

"Oh, come on! You're trying to impress people! A skirt! Go with a skirt like I've been bugging you all along!"

"That wouldn't go so well with the bulky chuunin vest, don't you think?"

"Oh, you have to actually wear that thing!"

"I will be there to officially represent the Leaf, you know."

"Makes sense I guess. So you have to wear the full dark blue ninja uniform?"

"Pretty much. What about you? Have you been assigned any interesting missions lately?"

"The usual. But there's that one big mission that I've been preparing for more than two years now. As soon as Naruto gets back, we're going to go save Sasuke!"  
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At least she had been able to put the chuunin vest to good use thought Hinata as she packed that night. She stuffed all the pockets with paper. After she'd completed her paper training with Yomiko, she'd taken to strapping a deck of paper to her left thigh and at her right hip.

While she still carried a few token kunai and shuriken for emergencies, for the most part, Hinata relied entirely on chakra-paper for her weaponry. While the Jyuuken was strictly taijutsu and didn't rely on weapons, Hinata had been able to incorporate Paper Using into her fighting style. Now instead of having to strike opponents with her hands, she could block their chakra flow by striking them from a distance with chakra-paper. The technique was still imperfect, but if she could just make it work it would the ideal way to make her fighting style serviceable for both hand-to-hand and long-range combat.

But for this mission, since so much of it depended on _looking_ like a shinobi, Hinata decided to use the kunai holster and shuriken pouch instead of her usual decks of paper. So, she was grateful for the vest pockets. Even if it did make her look like a potato. The very thought of it made Hinata smile. Before she had become friends with Sakura, she would never have verbalized such a thought even in her own mind.  
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It took only a day to travel to the capital of the Fire Country at a leisurely pace for a ninja. When Hinata arrived at the palace, she was greeted by a delegation from the Lord of the Fire Country. Hinata was prepared for this. She had pored over reports from similar missions performed in the past by diplomat-nins just so she wouldn't freeze up by encountering the unexpected. She also knew that the first couple of days would have nothing to do with the negotiation itself. Instead, she would be given elaborate tours of the Capitol, the palace, and the city. Although Fire Country and Leaf had a strong relationship since the village was located within the country, these kind of formalities still needed to be observed. Or maybe, because they were observed the two had a strong relationship. After all, regular tours of this nature were the only official channels for the Leaf to know what its host country was plotting. Likewise, when Fire emissaries visited, tours of the Leaf such as the ones Hinata had participated in during her diplomat-nin training were the only legitimate way for the Fire Country to see directly the goings-on of the Leaf.

Yet at the same time, both the village and the country were aware that these tours were heavily regulated and censored, that visiting diplomats only saw what the were allowed to see. It was all like a complex jutsu, an involved charade, an elaborate dance that both parties knowingly engaged in while pretending to be unaware of it.

Her mission really was three-fold. Ostensibly, she was here to negotiate grain importation with her village's host country. Even though it was called a village, the Leaf was really a city; hence, there wasn't enough farmland to grow all the crops needed to feed its inhabitants. Since Fire Country exclusively hired Leaf shinobi, as a courtesy, Leaf exclusively imported what crops it could from Fire. This was the purported purpose of her mission. The other two elements of her assignment were just as, if not more, vital than the first. She had to represent the strength of the Leaf, which in turn would hopefully lead to more clients. And last of all, she had to covertly gather information on Fire Country so that Leaf could stay on top of all political intrigue. All of this had to be done without visibly violating any laws, regulations, or courtesies in Fire Country while maintaining a professional diplomatic façade. The byakuugan's ability to read human emotion and intent fairly accurately helped.  
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The Lord of the Fire Country was curious. Normally he wouldn't even waste a moment of his time glancing at something as minor as grain trade negotiations. But this young diplomat-nin in training could become the next Hyuuga clan head; ultimately she might become a woman with power at her fingertips. And when such a thing came to pass, it would be to his best interest to get a measure of the girl now. True, odds were split fairly evenly on whether she would actually be selected heiress or bypassed in favor of the more promising geniuses in her clan. But the Lord of Fire Country was not a gambler; he'd meet the girl just in case she did become clan head. One can never have too many plans laid aside as insurance against future uncertainties..Hinata straightened her shoulders. She looked the part. She knew she did. She'd checked several times in the mirror that morning, making sure she looked the very image of a confident ninja. It was her fourth day on the mission and the negotiations would finally begin. She'd most likely meet with some senior officials from the treasury and granary and the next two days would be devoted to haggling in polite terms over how much grain the Leaf could import from Fire Country at a given price and so on and so forth. Standard stuff. Hinata braced herself and headed towards the meeting room. She could do this.

She bowed deeply as she entered into the room. "I convey the greetings of The Fifth Hokage to the Lord and Ruler of the Fire Country. May the Fire and Leaf prosper together." As she looked up, Hinata momentarily froze. Imagine her dismay at seeing the Lord of the Fire Country himself standing before her.

"We accept your greeting," he responded, eyeing Hinata as if _she_ were a surprise to him. Hinata was dumbstruck. She couldn't do this. Her eyes darted about the room looking for escape, her heart pounding with anxiety, it was getting hard to breathe. She could almost feel her forehead protector tightening around her throat. Her forehead protector. She had a duty to the Leaf. Naruto would never run away like this. She couldn't fail. She wouldn't fail.

"I am honored, Lord, to make your acquaintance. The Hokage wishes to enact the yearly renewal of the Leaf's grain agreement with Fire Country as a token of our good faith." Once Hinata surmounted the initial hurdle, all her hours of preparation kicked in. The Lord of the Fire Country only stayed for the beginning. Hinata breathed a sigh of relief as he left the room and as the negotiations between her and the officials from the treasury and granary continued.

"As expected of the Hyuuga, you have a strong presence," the Lord of the Fire Country remarked as he left. "May the Leaf and Fire prosper together."  
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The negotiations went smoothly and the remaining two days of her mission would consist of attending the summer festivals. It was dull really. She couldn't actually participate in the festivals and didn't even have much time to shop at the small vendors' stands that had sprung up seemingly overnight. But over the course of those two days, she was introduced to every official of the Fire Country of any ambassadorial importance. She had been recognized as a legitimate diplomat-nin by the Fire.  
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When Hinata got back to the Leaf a few days later, she dropped off the brief mission report at the Hokage Tower. She would have to write a much longer and more detailed report which for the Diplomacy Corps later that night. That report would include even the seemingly minor information she'd gathered during her time at the Fire Country capital. The Fire Country had increased its crop harvest significantly since last year. There had been a noticeable increase over the past couple of years really, while the population had stayed the same. Rulers only did that if they suspected war or famine would be striking in the near future. The fortifications around the city also seemed as if they'd been rebuilt recently, and she had heard that the army was recruiting more aggressively. And the fact that the Lord of the Fire Country himself had come to a minor grain negotiation meant that things were not as simple as they seemed. All the signs were pointing in one direction and that direction made Hinata nervous.

But first, she was going to shower, eat a good meal, and take a nap. She had earned it. The mission hadn't been taxing physically, but the levels of stress she'd reached had worn her out.

But when Hinata arrived at the Hyuuga mansion, the Branch family maid assigned to her handed her a letter. It was from Sakura. The contents left Hinata speechless.

Apparently, while Hinata had been gone on her mission, Naruto had returned. The mysterious and threatening group the Akatsuki had kidnapped the Kazekage, who had then been saved with the help of the remnants of Team 7 and by Team Gai. As if all that wasn't enough, Sakura's letter continued, "_And now, Kakashi-sensei's in the hospital while Naruto and I have been sent on a long-term Sasuke tracking mission because Naruto kept nagging Tsunade-sama about it. Really, it's just supposed to be information gathering, but to be honest, I think Tsunade-sama wanted to get Naruto out of her hair. You should have heard her yelling! I'm sure everyone else in the village did as she screamed, 'Orochimaru, movements of the Sound, Akatsuki, anything. Just. Get. The. Hell. _OUT_ of my office, Naruto!'_

"_Anyway, I hope your mission went well and the Diplomacy Corps promotes you to more exciting stuff. I'm sure you passed the trial by Fire. Haha, sorry couldn't resist the bad pun._

" _Also, I was hoping you wouldn't mind writing me a letter every now and then to keep me updated on the goings-on of the village as it seems that Naruto and I might be roaming the world for a while. I know they usually don't allow letters to ninja out on missions for fear of information leaking, but I checked with Tsunade-sama and the Diplomacy Corps. Since you're a diplomat-nin, you've got clearance. So keep me up to date on all the gossip and fashion!_

_Hope to hear from you soon,  
Sakura"  
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_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

A/N: I apologize for the long update time. To review some facts, this is post time-skip, after the Gaara kidnapping. At that point, my story diverges significantly from the Naruto timeline. Characters such as Sai and Yamato haven't been introduced yet (I don't know yet if I'm even going to use them). All of Team 10, 8, and Sakura have made chuunin. Naruto's still a genin.  
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Sakura was tired. She and Naruto had been running through the forests of Fire country for 8 hours straight and Naruto still looked like he wanted to keep going. Enough was enough though. 

"Naruto! Hey, listen to me!" Damn it, he was too far ahead of her to hear unless she stared screaming at the top of her lungs. That might not be the smartest of ideas when they were so far beyond Leaf territory. Although beating up a few bandits or anyone who would give them grief sounded like really good stress relief right about now. Shizune would probably be disappointed in her if she did anything like that though. Sakura sighed in resignation, speeding up to catch up with the blond idiot sprinting through tree branches ahead of her. She probably grabbed his arm harder than she needed to when she did reach him—dislocating his shoulder seemed like fair punishment for making her keep up to his impossible pace. Of course with Naruto's insane healing abilities, he only felt a minute of discomfort before his body somehow fixed the problem.

Once she had jerked him to a stop, Sakura paused on a largish tree branch, her hands braced against her thighs as she caught her breath "Let's set up camp for the night, Naruto. We don't need to kill ourselves. This isn't even a real mission!"

"I can't believe you're saying that, Sakura-chan! We have to find Sasuke. This is probably our only chance. You know how that old hag wouldn't let us go after him for years. No one seems to understand. But he's our teammate and we have to save him!"

"I'm the last person you need to convince about that! I care for Sasuke-kun too! I want to get him back just as much as you do, but running until we collapse from exhaustion is not the way to do it!"

Naruto looked down at his sandals, serious and downcast all of a sudden, the determination and fire of his earlier words banked. "I know that. It's just…we don't have any leads, Sakura-chan. We both know time is running out. Soon that snake bastard will take over his body."

Sakura rested her hands on Naruto's shoulders until he looked up at her and offered him a slight smile. "It's rare when I get to cheer you on. It's usually the other way around. We'll do it. Don't worry. We just need to use our brains, that's all. We'll start by tracking the border of Sound and then following any rumors we hear of mysteriously strong shinobi. It'll be better than running around Fire country like chickens with their heads cut off."

"Hey! I wasn't running around like a headless chicken!"

"Sure you weren't. Come on, let's set up camp."

"Sakura-chan, you're so heartless!" Sakura smiled, glad that the banter was back and that serious almost downtrodden look was out of Naruto's eyes. As long as she had known him—well after she'd really gotten to know him once she looked past her Sasuke-kun induced obsession—Naruto had always been an unquenchable source of hope. There were countless examples she could run through, in fact, that's exactly what her analytical mind had started doing; from strengthening the determination of the Rookie 9 during that first terrible chuunin exam to making Gaara see sense to even convincing Tsunade-sama to become Hokage (and hadn't that story shocked her when she had heard it from her mentor!), Naruto had always been inspiring those around him with hope in the face of the utterly hopeless. Sasuke, perhaps, was his first real failure. Sakura was sure that in some way, that was how Naruto saw it. That he had failed Sasuke. And in typical Naruto fashion, that meant he had to make up for it. Sakura kept smiling. For all that she mocked him, she knew he would become Hokage one day. Someone so determined couldn't simply fail.

As Sakura started setting up a small campfire while Naruto began arranging their sleeping bags, she heard a small rustling behind her. A small paper bird flapped in front of her. Naruto had a kunai out and was between her and the bit of paper before she could blink.

"No, wait, Naruto! Don't tear it!"

"What the hell is this thing?.!"

Sakura reached around him and plucked the still flapping bird out of the air. The paper seemed to unfold itself until it became one single sheet. "It's a letter from Hinata-chan. Since we'll be gone indefinitely, I asked her to write me the Village news while we were gone."

When Sakura let out a low whistle, Naruto looked up from taking out their rations and asked "What's the matter?"

"Wow. I'm impressed—not only did Hinata use that bird-paper jutsu, a self-destruction seal in case it fell into wrong hands, and a cipher, but the entire thing is in code too! It makes me feel like I'm receiving top secret information or something."

"So, what'd she say that's so important that she encoded it like that?" he asked trying to peer over Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura hit him jokingly, "Naruto! You can't read someone's private letter! And even worse, it's girl talk! Don't you have any decency?"

"Hey, don't make me sound like the pervert-hermit! I just want to know what the big deal is with her being so careful. Is it top secret information?"

Sakura couldn't help teasing him. "You bet it's top secret information. Here, it's mostly business anyway, so I'll read it to you:

_Spring,_

_Perhaps caution is excessive but the paperpushers insisted this would prove a good exercise when I asked permission. It's become an official assignment._

_I suppose this gossip is not so secret as its reviewed by seniors before getting clearance, but it will keep you up-to-date with happenings here._

_The big news lately is that my friend Sunglasses has met a girl with similar interests—she's not from around here though, and he's coming in for a lot of teasing from our mutual friend Fang that long-distance relationships don't go too well. Teasing aside, I think this is fairly serious as I haven't seen Sunglasses so interested in a girl before. Although, honestly, I'm not sure how much of it is his interest in her and how much is his interested in their …common interests. I apologize for the repetition and circularity, but I trust you of all people will be able to reconstruct my meaning._

_All your instructors are doing well—the Scarecrow, the Princess, and her Assistant._

_While it would be too dangerous for you to convey details of your whereabouts and doings, I'm sure you'll find innovative ways to keep me informed of the high and low points of your outing. I imagine it will be a helpful exercise for you as well._

_Sun_"

Sakura prized her privacy, even over things that honestly weren't worth guarding so possessively—it came from being an only child and not having to share her room or possessions with siblings. But the absolutely baffled look on Naruto's face after listening to the letter was worth the small sacrifice of sharing her mail with him. As the look on Naruto's face became even more pained as he tried, and no doubt failed, to even get a hint of meaning out of the cryptic remarks, Sakura couldn't hold it in any longer—she burst out laughing.

"Sakura-chan! Stop laughing at me! What the hell is that all about anyway? Paperpushers? Sunglasses and Scarecrows? Are you sure it didn't somehow get mixed up and that's someone else's mail?"

"Oh, come on, Naruto. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Although, maybe not for you."

"Hey! I'm not dumb!"

"No, no that wasn't what I meant. It's just that you don't know Hinata so it didn't make much sense. Like the paperpushers thing—it's obvious she's talking about her supervisors at the Diplomacy corps, but you don't even know she works there, do you? Ok, well I'll take pity on you just this once and translate:

_Sakura_—"

"Wait, why does she—"

"I haven't even read past the opening and you're already interrupting me!"

"I just want to know how you knew Spring meant Sakura is all! Don't get your undies in a bunch."

Sakura hmphed. Really, Naruto could be so crude sometimes. Although she was being sort of prissy she supposed. "It's my name: Haruno Sakura—Spring's Sakura."

It was like a little lightbulb went on in Naruto's mind, the way his face lit up in understanding. "Now, quit interrupting. Ask your questions at the end.

_Sakura,_

_Perhaps I'm being too careful but the Diplomacy Corp thought this would be good training and have made writing to you in code and cipher into an assignment._

_I can't tell you anything really secret since my bosses at the D.C. read everything, but I can keep you up-to-date on general gossip._

_My old teammate Shino has met a girl who's also into bugs, she's not from the Leaf though and Kiba's being an ass and teasing him mercilessly about long-distance relationships—_"

Here, Naruto interrupted her again and despite the irritated look Sakura sent him boldly said "Hey, are you sure you're reading that right? I don't think Hinata's the kind of girl who'd call someone an ass! Sure she's weird, but she's so quiet! She wouldn't talk like that."

"Ok, fine, so maybe I was editorializing a little bit. But you'd be surprised by what Hinata would and would not say if you talked to her more. But it does take a lot to get her to swear. She'd probably say 'Kiba's being a jerk'—but really, jerk, ass, it gets the meaning across all the same!" The exasperation was beginning to show itself in Sakura's voice. She never did have much patience and Naruto calling her out on a mistake was exacerbating her annoyance.

Years of spending time with such potentially violent women as Tsunade and Sakura had taught Naruto at least the minimal level of conversational survival instinct. He realized, rightly, that it would be best to change the subject at this point instead of dwelling on her mistake if he wanted to avoid a potentially damaging hit from Sakura. "So, who's this girl she's talking about anyway? The one Shino's interested in?"

Sakura huffed. She could tell Naruto was trying to manage her. But it was also a peace offering, so she decided to be gracious. "I didn't know you were such a gossip, Naruto. I can't remember her name, but she's from the Sand. She's on that team that the Kazekage sent to the Leaf just before they kidnapped him. It's supposed to foster good ties between us and the Sand—they send us a rotating team and we send them one every couple of months. That way we can know each other's ninja better. Anyway, I don't remember the girl's name, but she uses some kind of jutsu involving puppets and scorpions."

Naruto did an exaggerated fake shudder—"Oh, ick. Scorpions. Puppets. After that creepy Sasori guy, that doesn't sound too good."

Sakura nodded in whole-hearted agreement. "I guess that works for Shino though. I mean, how many girls do you know that are into bugs? Anyway, the rest of the letter's telling me all my teachers are ok, Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-shishou, and Shizune too. And she's telling me to be smart enough to figure out a way to reply back in a discreet way since it would be good training for me too."

"So, how're you going to do it? Can you make that weird paper bird too?"

"No. Letter-carrying jutsu are actually pretty rare. Most people use summons."

After countless nights of camping out on missions, both of them naturally fell into the patterns of getting ready for bed and cleaning up after finishing their meal while continuing the conversation.

"Say, Naruto, do you think I could use one of your frogs?"

"Yeah, sure. Do you want one now?"

"Nah, I'll answer in a couple days or so. Good night."

"'Night."  
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Neither Sakura nor Naruto were morning people and so camp was broken in habitual silence. As she gathered her stuff, Sakura mentally composed various replies to Hinata's letter. It was harder than she had thought it would be—saying something while appearing to say nothing of significance.

In the end she settled on commenting on Shino's love life, complaining about lack of decent shampoo, especially since she'd be gone for an indefinite amount of time, and talking about how much she missed Sasuke and wanted to get him back. The last part made her a bit uncomfortable. She didn't mind Hinata knowing these things. And sure, it was in code, but she hoped that some guy from Diplomacy Corps wasn't reading her replies just as Hinata's own outgoing letters were being vetted by her superiors. Even if Sakura didn't mention Sasuke's name, anyone who knew her could figure out fairly easily she was talking about him and she didn't want some stranger knowing how much Sasuke still mattered to her. That thought alone delayed Sakura sending her response to Hinata for day as she mulled over cutting out the part about her worry over Sasuke or not. In the end, deciding to not to be wimp (and also knowing she wouldn't ever meet this anonymous reader from the D.C. anyway helped too) Sakura left it in there.

Naruto summoned a small orange and blue frog for her that night who, after being bribed with food, took Sakura's letter in his mouth and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

It would still take a hard week of traveling before they would reach the Sound border, and in that time, Sakura received another letter-bird from Hinata. Naruto bothered her so much with wanting to know what it was all about that she finally snapped and told him to write Hinata himself. Naruto didn't say anything, but that slightly subdued look on his face sent her for a quite thorough guilt-trip. After all, he was letting her use his summons so she could send her own letters. Without Naruto, she wouldn't even be able to write back. It made her feel as useless as she used to be when she was a genin all over again, back when she was constantly relying on Naruto or Sasuke to do everything for her. Even though Sakura had trained hard in those two and a half years with Tsunade, she hadn't made a successful summoning contract and now after relying on Naruto's frogs, she was throwing it in Naruto's face that _he_ didn't have any letters. It didn't take much to notice (although Sakura admitted, ashamed of herself, that it _had_ taken much for her to notice—it had taken Sasuke's betrayal for her to pay any serious attention to Naruto at all) that Naruto didn't have many close friends outside the team. He didn't have a family waiting at home. He didn't have anyone who _would_ write him letters.

Suddenly, Sakura felt six inches tall. "Hey, Naruto, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Naruto smiled sunnily, as if he didn't know pain or loneliness and simply said, "Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan."

Sakura did worry about it. So, in her next letter to Hinata, she asked her friend to write to her and Naruto both.  
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_To be continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

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Hinata's routine was much the same as it always was, with Sakura gone, she didn't have those pleasant lunches anymore, but really, what did social life have to do with ninja and professional training anyway? Or so she tried to tell herself. But really, having had something like friend now, Hinata felt the absence of not having one even more. She felt so disconnected from all human life at times—clan training, team training, Diplomacy training, all of them required working with other people, but she really couldn't help feeling that she was disposable in all three of them, that it didn't matter that she Hyuuga Hinata was doing the training; any other ninja would do just as well.

That was the thing about friendship, Hinata realized, it made you feel you were important for who you were, not for what you could do. Because, inevitably, somebody else could do what you did (and in her case, that someone else could probably do it _better_ than Hinata did), but no one could replace you with a friend.

Having come to this realization at the late age of 15 made her feel stupid. If this is what friendship was about, Hinata had wasted a lot of time. All these years, she could have, should have, approached Naruto. Having watched him all these years, she knew better than most others how much Naruto was up against, that he more than anyone else needed to know he mattered for who he was. And yet, she had let her shyness prevent her from approaching him beyond the handful of conversations that she cherished. Another failure. Would she always fail in everything?

She threw herself into her work even more fiercely. At least that way she didn't have to think about things like this then. She spent longer hours on her Paper-User training; Yomiko remained elusive, but she proved a good instructor. And yet, she was also another reminder of Hinata's social failure. In many ways, Yomiko was like Kurenai-sensei, or rather, Hinata's relationship with the two women was similar. Both had the potential to play significant roles in her life as mentors and role models, yet Hinata herself was so shy, felt herself so lacking in self-worth that she found it hard to approach these women who were such talented and intelligent ninja. Even asking them simple questions about jutsu embarrassed her--the idea of confiding in them or seeking advice beyond training terrified her. How could someone so foolish and weak like herself possibly say something to such impressive kunoichi?

_Stop it_, Hinata finally chided herself. _Are you bipolar or something? You were so proud of yourself after that diplomacy mission to Fire. Stop thinking like this. It won't do any good to think like this._

And yet believing in herself was easier said than done. Fortunately, it was just at this moment of self-doubt and uncertainty that a little frog hopped out of a puff of smoke right above the carrel in the library Hinata had her diplomacy research spread out in. The frog looked at her pointedly until she removed the scroll from its mouth and then performed an odd little half-bow-half- hop as she thanked him before hopping off once more in another puff of smoke. Hinata smiled for the first time all week. Letters from Sakura always cheered her up and reminded her to stop beating herself up.

After reading the letter, Hinata sat back, the piles of books surrounding her forgotten in her disbelief. Really, she couldn't even feel happy about it yet, the shock was so great. Sakura wasn't very clear on the why, but for some reason, she wanted Hinata to start writing to Naruto as well. Hinata didn't have any friends back in the Ninja Academy and had been picked on mercilessly until she became so quiet and withdrawn that most kids even forgot she was there, and so an insecure voice in the back of her head could not help but wonder if Sakura was making fun of her. Did Sakura know Hinata liked Naruto and now she wanted to laugh at her by pulling a prank? Was she expecting Hinata to write some kind of elaborate love confession that she would use to mock Hinata with? Hinata quashed that voice rather quickly. How could she think something so unworthy of Sakura?

But better safe than mocked had been the hard lesson learned at the Academy. And so she decided after some deliberation to write a joint letter to Sakura and Naruto both. After having come to that decision, Hinata felt much more able to rejoice in her good luck. She could write to Naruto! Here she was, regretting that she hadn't made friends with him just seconds ago and as if fate was on her side (for once!) this opportunity had presented itself!

But what could she possibly write that would be interesting? And why would Naruto want a letter from her? He probably just wanted news from the Village. It had nothing to do with her.

_Stop it_, Hinata chided herself again, this time more firmly. _So what if that's what it's about? Really, how could he possibly want a letter from **you**__ when you've never gone to the trouble of letting him know you care? So, show him that you do. Tell him that everyone he knows and loves at home is doing well. _

Her resolve hardened, Hinata pulled out a sheet of paper and began composing various replies.

* * *

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Although Naruto hadn't said anything since the Letter Incident as Sakura thought of it, she couldn't help feeling awkward around him after that simply because she was so ashamed of herself. After that whole mess with the Kazekage, when Sakura had learned that Naruto was a demon host himself, she felt the whole world had to change shape so it could fit this new and colossal fact. Naruto, always bumbling, always clumsy, always smiling, always _nice_ Naruto was a demon host? Despite her purported intelligence, Sakura was not that good at understanding people. If she were, she'd have figured out Sasuke long before his defection. This is why she didn't put together her new discovery about Naruto with the treatment he received from many of the villagers. She had always considered their behavior towards Naruto a reaction to his pranks and so did not think to reevaluate it in light of new information. Yet even the smaller realization that she'd come to—that Naruto was so nice to everyone and yet had to bear this burden on his own—had made her reconsider her attitude towards him even further. And so she felt even worse about her stupid ill-considered remark about the letters.

Granted the two hadn't chatted much when they had been traveling quickly to Sound, now that they were going through villages and towns near the Sound border while undercover as civilians, Sakura though that the stiffness between them was all the more obvious. They were several miles outside a town near the Sound border when night hit and had decided that camping out would be better than arriving suspiciously late at an inn. They went about the habitual motions of setting up camp in silence.

And so relief and gratitude were the first emotions Sakura felt on seeing one of Hinata's little paper-birds flapping towards her. She plucked the little bird out of the air and cried out excitedly, "Look, Naruto a letter!"

He merely smiled slightly and said "That's nice, Sakura-chan. Do you want to read it while I finish this up?"

Argh! Why was Naruto being so mature about this?.! It made Sakura feel even worse. "No, I mean don't you want to hear what Hinata has to say?"

Naruto didn't think he would ever understand girls. "But, Sakura-chan, weren't you all upset last time because it's your letter and none of my business?"

Sakura hated conversations like this. "Can't we just forget about that? And look, it's addressed to us both? See?"

Naruto peered over, but all he saw were odd scribbles that didn't even look like language. Making an educated guess based on Naruto's scrunched up expression of confusion, Sakura continued "Don't you know how cipher works? Didn't you pay attention when Iruka-sensei taught us? Wait, don't answer that. I'll explain."

"Aw, Sakura-chan, why don't you just read it to me? That'll be easier all around!"

"Oh, so is this too hard for you? I'd think a Hokage would at least be able to learn how to read and write in cipher!" Sakura taunted. Really, sometimes getting his competitive streak going was the only way to get Naruto learn anything. You'd think someone who wanted to be Hokage would realize necessary skill sets and learn them without having to be manipulated into it. But perhaps that was Naruto's strength. He inspired such trust in others that they wanted to help him achieve his goals.

After some grumbling, Sakura sat down with her attentive pupil and went over the basics. Really, Naruto was a rather good student once he took the bait of Hokage hook, line, and sinker.

"Ok, so now that you understand the principle of it," Sakura concluded, "why don't _you_ read the letter to me?"

With stumbling, hesitation and mistakes, Naruto read out:

_Spring and Summer,_

_I hope you are both doing well. Life at home is continuing much the same as always. Work is continuing much the same as always too. In fact, to break up some of the monotony, I have taken to reading novels recommended by one of the librarians._

_In terms of news, Cornflower (she insisted on choosing her own moniker too!) wants me to let you, Spring, know that you'll be (and I quote!) "squealing over the latest fashion when you get back." I'm sorry but I can't recall the rest of her rather detailed description._

_Summer, I wanted to particularly let you know that the schoolteachers are doing well. Although young Leaf and his comrades seem to be stirring up all sorts of new trouble for them. I'm sure they're eagerly awaiting your return._

_As always,_

_Sun_

"Well done, my student!" Sakura joked.

"You sound just like the pervert-hermit when you say that, Sakura-chan!"

After thawping him on the head, she asked "So, can you figure out what that meant?"

"Not a clue."

"You're hopeless…Ok, obviously Spring is me, and Summer is you."

"Why am I Summer? That doesn't have anything to do with my name!"

"I guess she thought putting the season together would imply she's talking about my teammate, you know like spring is with summer. And also, your last name's pretty distinctive so going around calling you Spiral would be too obvious I think."

Sakura could not know that Hinata had blushingly chosen Summer for Naruto because that is how he made her feel—warm, happy, free like a summer afternoon. Or that she'd thought rather sentimentally that with his bright hair and blue eyes, he was the personification of that season.

"So is that first paragraph some kind of code too?"

"No, I think that means what it says. The librarian is probably Hinata's new teacher Yomiko Readman. You know, she's started this really neat training in jutsu that relies on putting chakra in paper to do all sorts of stuff—that's how she makes these letter carrying birds. But I think she really just meant that she's reading novels because she's bored and needs stress relief. Hmmm… I suppose there's really no way you could have figured that out if you don't know Hinata, but the rest of it you should be able to decode."

"I really don't get it" Naruto whined after peering at the letter again intently for a few minutes. "What's all this about flowers and leaves?"

Sakura sighed. "Ok, I'll tell you this time, but that means you have to write the reply so you can practice cipher."

"You drive a hard bargain, Sakura-chan."

"You should just be grateful." But really, it was Sakura who felt grateful. The easy friendship between them was back. Naruto had forgiven her right away, because that was what Naruto did. But still, things had been awkward because Sakura hadn't forgiven herself. Now that felt she'd made up for her meanness, their usual easy camaraderie of teasing and jokes reasserted itself. "Anyway, Cornflower is obviously Ino. Who else would be so pushy or work so hard on picking an appropriate flower name for themselves? And before you ask it's an appropriate flower because cornflowers are blue. I'm sure Ino would go on and on about them matching her eyes or something. I wonder what fashion she's talking about. If she tells me one more time that netting is the hottest look and that I need to redesign my outfit…"

Noticing Naruto's rather bored look, Sakura sniffed in mock irritation. "Sakura-chan, I don't really care about girl clothes. What does Hinata want to say just to me? You know that part she said was particularly for Summer?"

Naruto almost sounded like a kid at his birthday party eagerly anticipating presents. Something that was just for him. Such things were few and far between in his life.

"Well, the schoolteacher thing is referring to the Ninja Academy I'm sure. I think she's talking about Iruka-sensei. You hang out with him sometimes, right? I'm kind of surprised she knew that. And then 'Young Leaf' _has_ to be Konohamaru. So she's saying he and his gang are up to their usual pranks. That's also kind of weird that she knew you're friends with them."

"Well, Hinata's a weird girl."

"Naruto! How can you say something so mean when she was nice enough to write to you?!"

"Hey, I don't mean bad-weird. She's weird, but nice!" Naruto didn't know quite why, but he felt like smiling. Usually he didn't, but smiled anyway. Now, now, he felt like the smile came on its own. He didn't know what it was. Maybe because his precious people were doing well? Maybe because someone else knew he had precious people? Maybe because someone took the trouble to know who his precious people were?

Sakura was also confused but for different resaons. She didn't know what to make of his remark. Maybe it was a boy-thing to be so rude. And then Sakura had a realization that made her feel like she'd been hit in the face with a brick--or one of the Hokage's finger-flicks. How could she possibly be so _stupid_?! Wasn't she supposed to be the smartest kunoichi of her class? That very first day that she'd become friends with Hinata, the girl had mentioned that she liked Naruto, that she was chasing his shadow. But Hinata, always reserved and self-effacing, had never brought that up again and Sakura had quite forgotten about it. Hinata liked Naruto. Enough that she knew which people mattered to him. And although Naruto was being stupid about it, he had said Hinata was "nice."

Hmmm…there was potential here and Sakura had always wanted to try her hand at matchmaking. Well, she wouldn't meddle too much because she didn't want to mess anything up for Hinata. Besides, Hinata probably wouldn't appreciate her meddling. But Naruto was definitely too stupid to notice things if he was left on his own. For now, Sakura decided to settle for being subtle and pushing this correspondence along as much as she could. She wouldn't do anything drastic, surely lightly nudging them towards each other couldn't be a bad thing?

"Sakura-chan, why do you have such a scary look on your face? Like you're plotting to kill me or something."

"Idiot." Sakura muttered as she hit him on the head...again.  
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The next day, with the help of some good genjutsu, temporary hair dye, and convincing civilian clothes, Sakura and Naruto went through the town they had camped outside of the preceding night pretending to be siblings traveling to a nearby city to visit family while in they gathered information. They checked out a room in an inn, and while Sakura hit the hot springs and shopping areas to get the local gossip out of the women, Naruto went around to taverns. They both kept their ears open for information on any shinobi encounters or any news that seemed out of the ordinary.

Sakura was always impressed when she saw Naruto in ninja mode. Even though she knew he had improved and had daily evidence of that improvement when they traveled and he pulled out random jutsus he had picked up from his training with the legendary hermit Jiraiya when he needed them, she still had a hard time believing he'd be so good at going undercover! For someone so loud, obnoxious, and distinctive as Naruto, it was really amazing. He seemed to have a natural talent for acting, for pretending to be what people wanted to see. When she asked him, he wrote it off as experience from traveling with the "pervert-hermit. That old man would have us traveling around in disguise all the time so he could avoid the hoards of women angry at him." But somehow, Sakura suspected there was more to it. Naruto acted a part with such ease, as if he'd been doing it from a young age…

They met up at last late that night at the inn and to discuss their finding and write up a cipher report which was submitted to the Hokage via Naruto's summons. They hadn't learned much, but that in itself was telling. Sound was not involved that closely with civilians outside their borders. That implied that they did not perform the sheer amount of local, simple, and inexpensive D-rank missions that most Villages used to finance themselves. Sure D-ranks paid little, but if you have enough of them, it added up. If Sound didn't need D-rank missions, it meant they had another source of income. The thought was troubling, since it could mean any number of things--including the rather chilling idea that Sound might be supported financially by wealthy Lords and Daimyos. But all that was guesswork. In terms of hard evidence, between the two of them, Sakura and Naruto merely pieced together that in this town there would be the occasional Sound ninja on a mission hired by one of the richer families, yet for the past few weeks not a single shinobi had been seen. What's more, when one of the wealthier families had tried to engage ninja services for an escort just last week, they were turned down rather abruptly. Something was going on in Sound. But with such little information, they could hardly rush in as if they were still inexperienced genin.

Realizing that dwelling on their frustratingly little knowledge would not help, Sakura instead decided to lighten the serious mood of their thoughts. Pulling out a scroll from her pack, she said, "Ok, Naruto, think of some interesting stuff to tell Hinata so we can write her a letter tonight." Usually Sakura didn't reply to Hinata's letters for a couple of days, but in the interests of Lite Matchmaking, she decided to move the schedule up a bit.

After much head-scratching and eye-scrunching in thought, Naruto finally contributed a hilarious anecdote of how his questioning earlier that day had been interrupted by a little boy who had coerced him into helping look for a lost dog and finally finding said dog, a large golden lab, stranded on rock in the middle of a stream while being terrorized by a kitten on the nearby riverbank. It was nonsensical, harmless, and funny--in short, typical Naruto. For her part, Sakura asked Hinata if she remembered anything about that new fashion Ino had been going on about. She also added that Hinata might ask Ino for ideas if she wanted to redesign her outfit; although she hated to admit it, Ino had really good taste. Naruto made bored faces as Sakura dictated the details of her reply which he had to write down in cipher.

Soon, the two of them were exchanging letters with Hinata almost daily. She would give them news and gossip from the Village, passing on messages people might have for either Sakura and Naruto, and usually mixing in some entertaining summaries or quotes from the novels she was reading. The information about her training was too sensitive to trust to messages, even such well guarded and coded ones. Sakura and Naruto would respond in kind by writing about their travels without including any details that could give away location or the purpose of their mission. Also in the interests of Lite Matchmaking, Sakura convinced Naruto to start writing his own letters to Hinata by insisting she wanted to write her own "private" letters full of "girl-talk," so Naruto would have to compose his own separate ones.

At first Naruto felt uncomfortable, writing to someone he barely knew, someone who barely knew him. He wondered if Hinata was writing to him out of pity because Sakura had asked her to. But her letters were always so considerate: she told him about the new items on the Ichiraku-Ramen menu, Konohamaru's latest pranks, the doings of the remnants of the Rookie 9. Always telling him about people and places he cared about, almost as if she might have cared. Having encountered so little kindness in his life, he was grateful for even this little offering of consideration. And so he always thought out his letters with care, trying to think of amusing anecdotes from his current and previous travels to entertain her with in return for her kindness.

After half a dozen letters or so, Naruto began to notice that Hinata never said anything personal; she told him about stories she was reading, but never, never did she talk about herself. He wondered why. Unlike Sakura, subtlety was something almost foreign to Naruto. Why use a fly-swatter when a hammer will get the job done too? So, he closed his next letter with,

_You know, Sun, you're nice and all and I'm really glad you take the trouble to write to me—getting letters from home after a day of fruitless traveling feels good. But it's weird because I don't really know you. Why don't you tell me about yourself? What kind of things you like and stuff?  
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To be continued...  
_


	6. Chapter 6

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

A/N: I apologize. This chapter is kind of filler and was very hard to write, which is why it took so long. I do have a whole general plot arc planned out, but it's hard to think of all the little details to fill in that very bony skeleton with.

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Soon after she sent off that first letter to Naruto, Hinata's smoothly developed routine was shattered. Or rather, it was shattered and reformed entirely. She had been promoted. She wanted to tell someone about it so badly, sometimes she was afraid the excitement would just burst out of her mouth in the middle of some unrelated conversation with someone who couldn't care less about her success.

And that was just the problem—no on _did_ care about her success, so she had no one to tell. Her family was out of the question. She had never been allowed to get close to most of the Branch family members since they were considered social inferiors and she would not even consider approaching anyone in the Main branch about something so inconsequential as herself. Bragging about such a minor promotion would only bring her down further in their eyes. Even Hanabi or Neji, who were the most approachable ones in the Main and Branch respectively, would simply give her that scornful look and ask why she was wasting their time.

Shino and Kiba might have been a possibility, but Hinata did not want to seem like she was bragging. While Shino always participated in conversation as minimally as possible, Kiba proudly boast about the techniques he was learning from the Inuzuka Clan and how he was getting stronger and better. Hinata never contributed much to such moments because, well, she didn't have much Hyuuga training to talk about, did she? Unsubtle as Kiba was, even he must have noticed her reticence on this subject.

For her to mention this promotion to them would make her all the more pathetic, like she wanted to impress them, wanted them to praise her. And that wasn't it at all—she just wanted to tell someone how _thrilled_ she was. It wasn't about pride, about competition—Hinata wasn't cut out for such things. No, for her, it was about happiness, about a sense of self-worth.

Sakura would have been a good option, but she was out on that mission, and dropping hints about her promotion in _a letter that would be read by her superiors to make sure she wasn't being indiscreet_ seemed highly unprofessional.

Still lost in thought, Hinata left the Diplomacy Corps office for her lunch break. Even though Sakura had been gone on her mission for nearly two weeks now, Hinata's feet were unthinkingly taking her in the direction of the Konoha Hospital. Realizing her mistake and mentally calling herself an idiot, Hinata turned around and headed back towards one of the numerous restaurant littered side-streets downtown. Busy chiding herself for her forgetfulness, she ran into a petite figure because of her absentmindedness. An apology already on her lips, Hinata looked up diffidently and instead exclaimed, "Kurenai-sensei!"

Kurenai smiled back at her in that reassuring and confident way of hers, her red eyes never losing their mystery and yet slightly softened by friendliness; it was the smile that always made Hinata wish she could possess a fraction of Kurenai's poise. "I haven't seen you in a while, Hinata. Are you on your way for lunch? Are you free?" Hinata nodded slightly and on seeing Hinata's characteristic nonverbal responses, the older kunoichi continued, "Then I'll treat you and we can catch up."

Both women reassumed the roles of student and teacher easily and without missing a beat: Kurenai turned and began leading Hinata to a sushi restaurant nearby. As they walked in silence through the bustling noonday streets, Hinata couldn't help feeling uneasy about Kurenai's offer to pay for her meal. It wouldn't be right, would it, now that she was no longer Kurenai's charge for the woman to have to coddle Hinata just because the girl was still her same timorous self?

Besides, Hinata's own embarrassment aside, if she'd learned anything at the Diplomacy Corps, it was the importance of maintaining one's independence. Granted this was not a diplomatic mission between political allies or enemies, but a lunch between an instructor and her former student, and granted that even during negotiations favors had to be graciously asked for, accepted, or made, the important thing was to realize that every gesture spoke. And Hinata didn't think she liked what having Kurenai-sensei pay for her seemed to be saying—that she was still the same old Hinata she had always been, the timid genin who never gave her opinion and simply nodded quietly and went along with her teacher and teammates.

Did that mean that all the changes Hinata swore she was making in herself would evaporate into thin air as soon as she encountered someone who knew her from before? Would she only be able to act like the new Hinata she was trying to become in front of new acquaintances such as her coworkers at the D.C. or newly made friends like Sakura? Did that mean that she wasn't changing who she was at all but instead putting a thin coat of fresh paint on her cowardly ways to hide them? Would all her resolve vanish in the face of the old expectations people held of her? Certainly that was the case with her family—she hadn't asserted herself at all in the face of Hyuuga stoicism. She wasn't developing her relationship with Neji-nisan or even trying to improve her relationship with her own sister. How could she attempt to follow her own path to becoming a shinobi she could respect if wasn't even making an effort with her personal relations with others?

Hinata shook herself out of such thoughts as they left the noise and heat of the street for the quiet and cool of the restaurant. Kurenai guided them to an empty table near the window and after the waiter had taken their order, the woman eased back into her chair and remarked, "You know, Hinata, I'm glad I ran into you today—I was thinking of hunting you down myself the other day." Seeing Hinata's questioning and slightly alarmed look, Kurenai continued, "I have to admit, I'm a little angry at you. I had to hear about my own former student's promotion from the grapevine!"

"Promotion?" Hinata repeated confusedly. "You mean me? You heard?"

"Yes, I mean you! One of the other jounin-sensei told me I should be proud of myself since the latest change in the Hokage's entourage showed how all of my old students are growing into the promise I always bragged they had. And I had to embarrassedly admit to him I had no idea what he was talking about!" No matter how hard she tried, Hinata could not imagine the always self-possessed Kurenai-sensei looking embarrassed. "I hadn't even realized you were working for the Diplomacy Corps now and then I found out you've been there for nearly two years!"

Their platters of sushi arrived, and as the two began eating in a leisurely fashion, under Kurenai's continual prodding questions Hinata started filling her old teacher in on her time at the D.C., how it had been slow going and bookwork at first but now she felt she was really a part of the department.

"And this promotion?" Kurenai asked curiosity written plainly on her face.

By this point, Hinata felt like she was glowing, part in embarrassment at having such attention focused on her, part from having put too much wasabi on her sushi, and part in excitement at finally being able to verbalize it and make it real to herself, "A few days ago, since I—since I was favorably able to complete a trade negotiation mission with the Fire Country, they moved me up to chuunin honor guard and scribe," her head ducked shyly, Hinata said the last at her empty plate which now only held wasabi dissolved into soy sauce, "for the Hokage's meetings."

"For the Hokage's meetings?" Kurenai repeated dumbfounded and suitably impressed.

Hearing the shock in the woman's voice, Hinata rushed to assure her, "Oh, it's not that important. I'm not one of her real personal chuunin guards…I'm more of a, a, decoration. A show of strength. I'm supposed to protect her, of course, if there's an attack, but they're not counting on me. They have better ninja for that. I'm really just there to take notes and help provide a record of her meetings. And I'm not invited to the really important ones. Only to her meetings with clan leaders and department heads. Sometimes I can go to the lesser meetings with other Kages or Lords and Daimyos if the Hokage wants to have a particularly large entourage with her as a symbol of power. And I still get occasional diplomat missions out of town for smaller stuff like trade and renewing agreements. So, really, it's not that big a deal."

Kurenai felt like beaming at the girl; yes, Hinata had proven Kurenai right--the promise the girl had shown even when young and uncertain was unfurling into a bright future. No, Hinata had not suddenly changed into an amazing shinobi. She was growing into the amazing shinobi Kurenai knew she could become. "You have no idea how proud I am of you," however, was all the praise Kurenai allowed herself to voice. After being the girl's teacher, she knew anything more would have her blushing, stuttering, and entirely embarrassed. "But with all this specialized training, I hope you aren't letting your combat skills slide."

"Oh no, at least I don't think I am. I mean I train whenever I can."

"With the boys?"

"Not so much anymore. Shino and Kiba seem to be focusing strongly on their—their family styles," again Hinata was speaking to the table, the hurt and disappointment although masked still evident in her voice and actions. "I train some with my cousin." At last she looked up, "But I've also been working with another alternative ninjustu with a new teacher."

"Oh?"

"Have you heard of Paper Using?"

"You don't mean...But Yomiko Readman was the last ninja trained in that. You're training with _her_?!" Kurenai's eyebrows rose up.

"Well, I sort of met her in the library and begged her to help me so…"

"Well, you are just full of surprised today! You're probably her first student in decades!"

"Oh, it's not formalized teaching or anything. She doesn't want to teach me anything advanced, really. I, I think she wants to forget that she ever was a shinobi. Sensei, do you know why she retired?"

"Well, this was really before even my time, and it's one of those things that's not discussed that much. There were rumors when I was in the Academy about how she was assigned a secret mission by one of the Third's councilmen. They said he tricked her and then betrayed her…" Kurenai's brows knit in concentration as she tried to remember, "someone she cared for died I think and it turned out that it was whole elaborate plan setup by the councilman to overthrow the Hokage. It was a pretty big scandal, but of course they didn't want details of an attempted coup d'état getting out. I think the councilman was executed for treason. She would be the person to ask though if you want details."

"I don't know," Hinata hedged. "I don't feel comfortable asking her. She seems sad when talking about ninjutsu and it seems…tactless somehow to bring it up. I tried doing some reading on it, but of course anything that might be helpful has been censored out of the books in the public library."

"I would have thought you'd have access to one of the Restricted Libraries for the D.C."

Blushing in embarrassment, Hinata responded, "Ah, well not yet. I'm mostly on the economic and the harmless political negotiations for now."

Kurenai smiled at that. "Don't worry. You'll be in the thick of sordid ninja 'peace' treaties in no time." She caught the eye of the waiter, and he discretely left the check on their table.

As Kurenai was reaching for the bill, she drew back suddenly and announced "Oh how could I forget? There was another reason I was looking for you! I wanted to talk to you about the jounin exam."

"The jounin exam?!" Hinata could only stare at her teacher in dumbfounded disbelief.

"I know I'm not really your teacher anymore, but it's traditional for you old jounin-instructor to give you a little bit of guidance about that."

"I—I don't think I'm ready," the edge of desperation in her voice was strong.

Yes, Kurenai thought, still the same Hinata, unable to see her own worth, unable to recognize who she was. Kurenai smiled reassuringly. "Oh, this is more to get you used to the idea. It's generally a good idea to start training at least a year in advance, so no one's expecting you to rush into it."

"Still, I don't think I…even after a year I won't be good enough." Hinata didn't think she could ever raise her eyes from the table again. How could she look her old teacher in the eye again?

"Hinata, how about you let me be the judge of that?" Kurenai said at last. "We can schedule a time, we'll have a spar, and I will give you my honest opinion about your abilities, your weaknesses, and your strengths. Will that help?"

"If you wouldn't mind…" Hinata mumbled in response.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm looking forward to it. This might be my only chance to face off against a Paper User!"

Kurenai was relieved to see the girl smile shyly at her attempt at lightening the mood. She had also heard through the grapevine that Hyuuga Hinata was finally showing her steel spine—Kurenai knew it was in there somewhere, she herself had witnessed it during some of the most desperate moments in their worst and most challenging genin missions—but it seemed when it came to human interaction, she was still shy, meek, easily intimidated Hinata. They scheduled their training spar for next week, Kurenai paid, and they exited the restaurant.

Both women were surprised when, as they were leaving, Hinata said hesitantly but still clearly, "Really, Kurenai-sensei, next time it'll have to be my treat. As a thank you."

With any other student, Kurenai would have at least given a token protest, saying as a teacher, it was her duty. Perhaps she wasn't the same shy Hinata after all.

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_To be continued..._


	7. Chapter 7

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

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A random selection of letters: 

_Sun,_

_That idiot Summer has gotten on my last nerve! I'm so sick of all of this. All these villages we've been traveling through are tiny and dull. This pointless expedition of ours has already frayed most of my patience—I don't need to put up with his idiocy on top of it all! I suppose I'm being unfair. I probably complain about our lack of success in this as much as he does. _

_We keep finding the same thing over and over and don't seem to get any closer to our goal. I miss Winter so much. I know it's silly, probably a lingering school girl crush that I should miss a boy I did not even know well enough to guess he would take such a reckless course of action, that he would abandon us, that he would desert his home. And yet, in all the time we spent together, I know that while he hid it in a shell of indifference, he really did care about us. He worried about Summer and I both when we were in danger, he looked out for me. There was a friendship between the three of us that nothing, even what everyone else back home thinks of as betrayal, can erode. For that friendship, I will do anything._

_Spring  
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. _Summer,_

_You asked about me, about what I like to do. It's hard question to answer not only because of the constraints imposed on our correspondence, but also because I lead a fairly dull life. I suppose I simply like my job and training to do it better. I feel uncomfortable at parties or with large crowds of people. I like being in the library and reading or spending time with friends such as Spring. I'm just plain, dull, and unexciting Sun. Perhaps this codename is inappropriate for someone as…unshining as I am. Cloud might have been more fitting._

_But I suppose that doesn't answer your question. As much as I love my home, I truly enjoy traveling. I love where I'm working right now because it allows me to travel more than I would otherwise be able to. Simply going around to different parts of the world and seeing how people live, how they dress, what they like to do, I find it fascinating! _

_I was in Tea Country, once, and there saw an amazing play performed with puppets. They called it bunraku. The puppets moved in eerily human ways—a puppet crying, arranging her hair, reading a letter, all their gestures were so in keeping with real human movements that soon I forgot they were puppets at all. I feel guilty saying it, but I must admit that while the puppetry was interesting, the play itself seemed to drag on for hours, and became duller as it progressed!_

_I hope you and Spring are both doing well. Word around here has spread that I'm in touch with both of you and as a result, people seek me out who I do not know well seek me out. I feel I have more friends than ever before. For that I thank you. However, in this process, I somehow found myself pulled into the middle of one of Young Leaf's escapades. You will have to ask him for all the gory details when you return—I'm sure he will want to boast his success to you. Also, he insisted I remind you to bring him back "something totally cool" from your travels._

_Sun  
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. ___Sun_

___You know, I don't really get Spring at all! When I started looking for stuff for Young Leaf—and I was going to get some things he could find all sorts of 'creative' uses for—Spring nearly had a fit and gave a long lecture on how I'm turning Young Leaf into a delinquent and how we're not here to waste our time shopping. My head is still smarting from it. But then, she decided we needed to go shopping for souvenirs and dragged me to all sorts of boring clothing stores! Girls…Um, no offense._

___Traveling is a lot of fun, but I think I've gotten my fill of it since I was gone so long. Being gone so long makes you really appreciate home I think. I also probably don't miss traveling too much because I had to spend my time with that Pervert Hermit. We always seemed to be on the run from hordes of angry women. But, yeah, we did see some pretty cool stuff while wandering around. This one time, we ended up camping out with a traveling circus and at first I thought their tricks would be lame, but it actually turned out to be pretty cool—the way they trained the animals was really interesting and this one woman taught me how to do the sword swallowing thing! I'll have to show it to you sometime._

___Maybe we should trade traveling stories—you know, I could give you all sorts of tips on what kind of places to avoid since that Pervert seemed to pick the worst hotels and restaurants. _

___Good luck with work!_

___Summer_

___PS I think you're shining. You're not a dull Cloud at all—your letters are always fun. But maybe Moon would be better than Sun.  
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___To be continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others. To review some facts, this is post time-skip, after the Akatsuki Gaara kidnapping. Characters such as Sai and Yamato haven't been introduced yet (I don't know yet if I'm even going to use them). All of Team 10, 8, and Sakura have made chuunin. Team Gai has made jounin and Neji is ANBU. Naruto's still a genin.

A/N: Ok, so I finally decided I need to try writing a fight scene. Let me know how poorly it came out--and if it makes no sense, definitely let me know so I won't attempt to write another one in the future.

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* * *

The day after Hinata's lunch with Kurenai dawned overcast and grey. _Some rain will at least provide relief from the scorching heat_ Hinata thought as she dressed and headed to the small garden she trained in every morning. There was a cool breeze, heavy with moisture that the clouds promised for later in the day. As usual, Neji showed up at 6 and wordlessly, the two settled into jyuuken stances and began sparring. Hinata wondered if Neji had some kind of internal clock because without fail, each day he would stop the training promptly at 7 AM, even if either one of them was in the middle of a move; he would simply stop and walk away. And today was the same as all the others except that as Neji reached the edge of the garden, Hinata cried out,

"Ne-neji-niisan! Wait!" Which made him stop, but of course, he didn't deign to turn around. Seeing Kurenai-sensei yesterday had made Hinata realize that she wasn't walking towards her goal as firmly as she had promised herself she would. She had heard after that first disastrous chuunin exam that Naruto-kun had fought Neji-niisan for her sake—it wasn't a mark of special favor she knew, Naruto would invariably have done that for any underdog. But it had been the turning point in her relationship with Neji-niisan. She only had herself to blame for the fact that although he was no longer hostile, their interactions were as stilted as ever. He at least was making an effort in seeking her out; she had done absolutely nothing. It was time for her to make an effort. "Would, would you like to have breakfast?" There, she had made the request. Agonizing over it all last night and this morning had shot her nerves to hell and the result had been a noticeable decline in her fighting skills. At least now the asking was over.

At last, he did turn around, looked at her inscrutably and finally nodded. Ok, so maybe this was why she hadn't tried to make an effort earlier. His silence and unreadable face made her feel like an insignificant insect wasting his time. The two walked back silently to the Main house, where Hinata had instructed a maid to leave two light breakfasts.

"I, I thought it would be nice if, if we took the time every now and then to, to discuss how…" Hinata didn't think she could keep it up. Her voice trailed off into nothingness as Neji resolutely took a teacup in hand and contemplated it as if she were not even present.

He set the teacup down. "Apparently even regular sparring isn't enough. You were awful today. What happened?"

"I…"

"Why aren't you taking this seriously?"

She was just a waste of time. Was he going to cancel their training sessions? Would she have to give up the Hyuuga fighting style entirely since no one thought she was good enough to train in it? Desperate to prevent that from happening, Hinata blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I wanted to make a request! I would like to try out a new fighting style I've been working on against your jyuuken."

She finally lifted up her eyes to look at him. His eyebrows were quirked in surprise but he only said, "Fine. Get up."

Damn. What had she gotten herself into. She didn't mean now. She didn't want to try out her paltry Paper Using merged with jyuuken without any warning. And she certainly didn't want to do it right after a grueling hour-long sparring session. But she couldn't say no either. Neji-niisan's low opinion of her would probably plummet underground if she did. She sighed, and trudged after him, back to her training garden.

* * *

Neji merely stood there. Not even in defensive pose of any sort. While Hinata hesitated, unsure of what to do, he called out "Well, Hinata-sama?" the impatience clear in his voice.

Something in his voice, perhaps the complete lack of faith, the bored conviction that whatever she did would not even surprise him stung her pride. She hadn't thought to bring the holster-deck of paper she usually carried since her early morning spars didn't include any Paper Using. And so, she began dismantling the three inch squares of paper making up her outfit, the pant legs fraying from the bottom—near her calves—in little square shaped patterns. She called up a dozen or so scraps into her hands and tossed the first one at him directly.

He didn't even flinch. Neji let the scrap of paper, which was moving with far too much force to be merely a normal piece of paper, hit his left knee. He could tell it wasn't an exploding tag, and he knew he would have to sacrifice something to figure out the nature of Hinata's new ninjutsu. Surprised coursed through him when he realized the scrap had just closed off the chakra point in his knee. Of course he didn't let the surprise register on his face.

Hinata, her byakugan activated, could tell she had succeeded, and in an attempt to push her advantage, threw the remaining ten scraps in her hands directly at him.

"Innovative, Hinata-sama, but ultimately pointless," he said and began the kaiten, which was exactly what Hinata had been hoping for. She had theorized how Paper Using would work against the Hyuuga fighting style but without actually putting it into practice, it was hard to tell if her ideas were sound or not. Just as she had thought, while generally weapons were heavy and so were deflected by the centripetal force created by the kaiten and flung away from the kaiten user, the scraps of paper were light enough to enter the spin of the kaiten and began whirling around with the wind Neji was creating.

Once the scraps gained an even distribution around Neji in the half-sphere of wind kaiten formed, Hinata carefully began manipulating the chakra she had embedded in the paper. She fashioned them into the texture, strength, and shape of senbon. As light, harmless scraps of paper, they had already infiltrated the force field created by the kaiten, so although it took a lot more effort than she had guessed it would, Hinata was able to push her Paper-senbon through the Hyuuga ultimate defense.

Again, Neji was surprised, but he did not let it affect his tactical thinking. As soon as he saw those Paper-senbon pierce the impenetrable kaiten, he stopped whirling and dove out of range. Unaccountably, one of the Paper-senbon still managed to strike his thigh, hitting a major chakra point. His left leg was effectively dead weight. Enough playing around. He would finish this now.

Sprinting essentially on one leg, he closed in on Hinata and initiated a much more brutal and vicious jyuuken attack than he had used on her in any of their morning spars. He had closed off all the points in her arms in a matter of minutes. Even without the use of her arms, Hinata found she could manipulate the Paper since chakra was already embedded in the Paper she was using as clothing; all she had to do was mentally activate and manipulate the chakra she had already embedded in the scraps.

Well, that was a helpful discovery to make—she should keep pre-embedded Paper to use as a back up as something she could manipulate even without having to first touch it and embed chakra into it in cases of emergency. The full sleeves of her shirt were gone, shaped rapidly into shuriken and kunai, flying as if attached to invisible strings at Neji's back and sides. They slowed him down, but still he was able to close off Hinata's major chakra pathways. When he held his palm strike against her neck—noticeably without striking, merely hold his left hand open against her neck in threat—she conceded defeat.

As Hinata stood there panting, her head slightly bowed, Neji began opening the sealed chakra points in his leg and then slowly and methodically opening all her sealed chakra points. Silently, he led her back to the Main house and their half eaten breakfast. Hinata excused herself for a moment, and returned with her small first aid kit for Neji's leg where her senbon had speared his thigh. Neji gave her another of those inscrutable looks and nervously Hinata mumbled, "I, I passed the basic first aid course at the Hospital. I should be able to patch up some thing this basic."

"Leave it. I'll do it myself later." .

As they sat down to finish their cold breakfast, he touched the Paper-senbon still embedded in his thigh; pulling the senbon out without immediately applying a bandage would cause the wound to bleed profusely. At last he asked "How did you get this hit in? I know I moved out of way."

"Oh. The Paper is manipulated by chakra so I can alter the path of the trajectory even after I've thrown it. Changing it too drastically or from too great a distance though burns up a lot of chakra."

Neji grunted acknowledgment and said, "This gives you an advantage at long-range combat but that's mostly based on an element of surprise. After another couple of spars, you won't have that lead. It does almost nothing for you in close-range."

"I've been trying to incorporate it into the jyuuken but it's hard to do it without having someone to practice against." Hinata wanted to smile. They were having an almost civil conversation.

He eyed her frayed sleeves and pant legs, "So that's how you've improved your chakra endurance and precision. It's rather immodest, I don't know if Hiashi-sama would approve"

"Oh! I wear some real clothes underneath and they're nowhere near as…revealing as some other kunoichi choose…" Hinata trailed off blushing. While she had imagined the conversation with Neji-niisan might be difficult or tense, somehow, she hadn't thought it would be quite this mortifying.

Neji, however, seemed to take everything in stride and merely commented, "You should develop something more complex, then. Something that requires more chakra so that you can take the training up a notch."

Hinata had to resist laughing outloud at that. She certainly didn't want Neji-niisan to think she wasn't taking his advice seriously. But it was odd to think that Neji-niisan of all people was telling her to change her ninja outfit. Hinata felt like she had to do it now. Sakura would have a field day with this.

"You might consider other methods of storing weapons as well."

"Such as?"

"If you were more observant, you would have noted that advanced weapon users seal back-up weapons in scrolls so they can be summoned when necessary."

"Oh. Right. As your teammate did during our first chuunin exam." They ate in silence for a few moments as Hinata pondered that. "Do you think you could ask her to…" her voice withered in the face of his glare. She couldn't understand what she had said to anger him.

"Main family you may be, but I'm not your servant. Run your own errands," he snapped.

Looking down at the teacup gripped tightly in her hands Hinata whispered, "I only meant to ask if you would introduce me to her so I could ask about the scrolls."

To this Neji offered the Hyuuga apology—he did not openly acknowledge his mistake or express regret but merely answered in a neutral voice, "Tenten and I are sparring this afternoon. Come to training area 17 at 4 this afternoon."

Giving the information itself was the apology, an acknowledgement of his error of his having misjudged her, again. It was like their early morning sparring sessions: his presence itself was an expression of remorse. She supposed, considering the long years of enmity between their families—between their _family_ really because Main or Branch, weren't the Hyuuga one?—such misunderstandings were inevitable. And that the only way to lessen them would be to continue in her endeavor of improving their relationship. For how could he know that she would never think of him as a servant when most of the Main _did_ consider the Branch in that light? He could only have known if he knew her. It was up to her to attempt to bridge this gap, to open up communication between Main and Branch, one step at a time.

Her resolution strengthened and reaffirmed, Hinata mentally grasped for a conversation topic. "So you think I should continue with this ninjutsu? Do you think I could eventually develop techniques that can counter jyuuken?"

"You're jyuuken's worthless." Hinata flinched at that, but Neji continued unperturbed, "But with greater chakra endurance and control, you could improve drastically. This new style—" he broke off looking at her questioningly

"Paper-Using," she replied.

"—this Paper-Using can help you achieve that. Even still, jyuuken doesn't seem to fit you as naturally as it should. Paper-Using will also give you an edge, and perhaps be a style that suits you more. But don't ignore your jyuuken in favor of this. If you can't be an expert in one particular style, you can still be a good shinobi if you're average in a number of them. It will give you a flexibility your opponent might not possess."

Hinata didn't think she'd ever heard Neji-niisan put so many words together at once. "Thank you. For the sparring and for taking the time to talk to me."

At Neji's nod of acknowledgement, she continued bravely, "Do you think it might be possible for us to eat breakfast and discuss the sessions every now and then?" She hoped she wasn't pushing him too far.

"Once a week." At Hinata's questioning glance he expanded, "Every Monday you can try out your Paper-Using against the jyuuken and we'll discuss the results afterwards. The rest of the time, it'll be just jyuuken. Your level is pathetic." This time Hinata steeled herself from showing any physical flinch although mentally she recoiled from his harsh assessment of her. "As clan heir, you need to be at least minimally competent in it."

"But, Neji-niisan, you and Hanabi are also being trained so…"

"So you think you can slack off?"

Again he managed to needle her pride. Hinata didn't have any pride in her ninja skills, or her beauty, or her intelligence, or anything really except for her hard work. Like Naruto-kun, she was a genius of hard work, and to have someone belittle that provoked her. "No! I mean that…the Clan doesn't have to, to put up with someone 'minimally competent.'"

As soon as the ill-considered words were out of her mouth, Hinata regretted them; she was trying to make peace with Neji-niisan, not antagonize him! What had gotten into her? But somehow, her angry words made Neji-niisan smile, just the littlest bit. He was pleased to see this evidence of her backbone. "Yes," he responded. "If you train, we won't have to put up with someone minimally competent."

It took a moment for Hinata to work out his backhanded encouragement. Once she did, she smiled for the rest of the day.

* * *

The extra spar had Hinata running a little late, so she took a quick shower instead of her usual leisurely one, went through her Hyuuga heir training—another session on Clan finances—and then sped off to the Diplomacy Corps offices by 9:30. After that, her schedule was much more fluid than it used to be when she was still a relative newcomer to the department. At the D.C. they'd tell her if there was a meeting today that she would attend, and if so, she would be at the Hokage Tower 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start, quietly sitting in an out of the way chair in whatever conference room the Hokage was using that day.

Generally, Hinata didn't have to attend more than a meeting a week, but the meetings themselves tended to be drastically different. There were Council meeting where Clan Heads, Elders, and other Council members would discuss all manner of business, financial, social, and political, with the Hokage. The issues tended to be extremely domestic—the meeting she had this morning consisted of the Nara complaining that the Inuzuka dogs were scaring their deer and the Inuzuka arguing that the Nara needed to maintain better fencing around their deer pastures—but sometimes, it would be international as when Elders advised the Hokage which Country to do trade with. Decisions were ultimately up to the Hokage, but if she didn't keep the Council happy, they could make her life miserable and even undermine her power, so it was in her best interest to treat their suggestions and grievances with respect.

There were also meetings that individual Clan Heads requested with the Hokage, which Hinata was allowed to attend if they weren't declared private. Meetings with foreign dignitaries, meetings with teachers from the Academy, meetings with the Civilian Council of the Village which focused on purely civilian interests and concerns. In a way, attending all these meetings and taking notes was a more advanced version of the book research she had been doing (and was still doing occasionally!) earlier. She wasn't there to help the Hokage or anything; it was mostly a learning opportunity for Hinata's sake. If she could begin to understand how all these different aspects, domestic, international, ninja, civilian, financial, social, all tied together, she had a better chance of becoming a good diplomat-nin. If she could internalize the workings of the Leaf's politics, she should be able to handle any surprise a mission in some other Country or Village threw at her. So she sat quietly in her corner, took extensive notes, and then filled in research from the library and handed in regular reports.

Sometimes, she got the occasional simple diplomat mission out of town, or short solo C-rank missions unrelated to diplomacy. She, Kiba, and Shino had even been called together last week for a B-rank retrieval of stolen sensitive information mission. But that sort of thing was rare. It had been a nerve-wracking experience. She was sure they were going to bungle it, but in the end, after some initial fumbles it had turned out all right. Missions, solo or team, were scheduled around the Hokage's meetings, and so mornings or afternoons when she didn't have either, she'd train, usually alone. Evenings and any other time in between were for finishing Diplomacy Corps research and practicing Paper-Using with (but generally without) Yomiko.

She had better intensify her training in preparation for that evaluation spar with Kurenai-sensei. Hinata didn't think Kurenai-sensei would tell her she was anywhere close to begin training for the jounin exam, but that didn't mean she wanted to embarrass herself by being pathetically weak. Hmm, it was 3:40, which gave her just enough time to sprint and pick up some stuff and then make it to training area 17 by 4. She knew how much Neji-niisan hated tardiness.

* * *

The overcast day of earlier had broken into an outright downpour. Of course that didn't prevent Tenten and Neji from training. Tenten knew that come rain or shine, or hell even hailstorm, Neji would expect her to be out there sparring according to schedule. Neji made a point of training with both Tenten and Lee once a week individually and together even though they were now all jounin and didn't go on missions together much.

Tenten suspected it had nothing to do with friendship and everything to do with Neji's obsessive compulsive desire for perfectionism—he wouldn't allow his skills to slip in any regard. Well, he was ANBU and that was what she was training for, so it worked out for her. She was getting in spars with a current member of the ANBU so that was bound to give her an edge on the competition in the next ANBU entrance exam. She wouldn't complain about his harsh training schedule even if Neji was a bitch sometimes.

Tenten was gratified to see that even Neji was panting and somewhat muddy after that demanding session. She began walking towards a large tree at the edge of the clearing they had been sparring in, and sat down under its sheltering branches. At least it kept most of the rain out. Neji joined her eventually.

Tenten's neck snapped to the left as she heard the unmistakable sound of a ninja walking intentionally loudly to proclaim his or her presence. Soon she saw a young Hyuuga girl leap down from a tree to their left and begin walking towards them. Of course, Neji took that moment to say "My cousin has something to ask you."

_Well, that was just like Neji_, Tenten thought. _So much for giving me a freaking warning._ Here she was tired, muddy, and irritable and he had to go and spring a surprise on her without so much as a heads-up. _Jerk._

The Hyuuga girl walked towards them shyly and when she reached them, Neji gestured towards her with his head and said, "My cousin, Hyuuga Hinata," and then nodding towards Tenten, "My teammate, Tenten."

Hinata felt increasingly awkward. _That_ was Neji-niisan's idea of an introduction? Finally, she forced herself to face Tenten and apologize for interrupting their training. "I thought the least I could do," she added, "for inconveniencing both of you was to bring some refreshment."

At that, Tenten couldn't resist remarking snidely that the girl had more manners than Neji. "Hmm, well there goes my theory," she taunted, "I thought being rude was a Hyuuga thing, but I guess it's a Neji thing." Of course Neji was too snotty to respond to that. He merely gave her a look that said pot-calling-the-kettle-black-but-of-course-I'm-too-good-to-actually-point-it-out.

Hinata thought she could _feel_ Tenten's temper rising, and so she interjected harmless conversation as fast as she could by saying "I hope green tea is ok?" She knelt and began pulling out a thermos and three teacups from a bag she'd been carrying on her back. The three of them sat down under the tree: Hinata, kneeling properly; Neji sitting cross-legged as was his prerogative as a man; and Tenten, also sitting cross-legged, leaning her weight back on her palms, entirely indifferent to stuffy manners.

As she started pouring the tea, Hinata commented "I stopped by a teashop and picked up some manju as well," and pulled out a little packaged of the sweet mochi buns filled with redbean paste.

Hinata's announcement was greeted by Tenten's squeals and a teasing comment of, "Well, you're a sharp one. You definitely know how to bribe a tired girl who has a sweet tooth! So, what did you wanna ask me?" she asked around the manju she was happily munching. Tenten supposed the day wasn't as bad as it had seemed at first—sparring in the rain was a nice break from the heat, and right now it was downright pleasant. Cool without being chilly, hot tea in her hands and a plate full of sweets before her.

"This is something of a technical question, but I remember that during our first chuunin exam, you used summoning scrolls that had weapons sealed in them. I'm currently experimenting with a new fighting style and I wanted to try something similar."

Tenten momentarily halted her attack on the manju and looked Hinata up and down."Hmm, I wouldn't have pegged you as the weapons type."

"Oh, I don't want to put weapons in them…in the traditional sense. But say I wanted to seal something else into them, would that be possible?"

"You mean blanks?" Tenten asked as she went for another manju. "Those're cheaper."

"I don't know much about specialty weapons, so I was wondering if you could tell me where I could buy some."

At that, Tenten mused that maybe Neji wasn't such a jerk after all. "Actually, my dad runs a weapons store. I'll take you there when you finish your tea and that way you can get a sense of the different types of scrolls." Tenten had started taking over her father's ailing weapons store. Tenten worked there on weekends and helped out the odd free hours she had. Her father's health wasn't what it used to be, and the shop's business was declining as a result. So, while she was furthering her training as a weapons mistress and training for the ANBU, she was also honing her skills as a weapons maker, but she was still a long cry from being anywhere near as skilled as her father.

Even if this Hinata girl didn't end up buying anything today, if she was suitably impressed by the quality of the weapons, she might come back. Really, any new customers were appreciated. She hadn't told Neji as much, but they had known each other long enough that she didn't feel she had to hide her financial difficulties from him. Besides, he wasn't the kind who would pity her—she shuddered to think what Lee's reaction would be: tears and promises of aid for his teammate down and out on her luck during the springtime of her youth—so she didn't mind Neji knew that she was struggling while trying to learn the ropes of running a business. Really, Tenten thought, that Neji was trying to help her without hurting her pride or damaging his reputation has a jerk with a block of ice for a heart was kind of sweet in Neji sort of way.

After finishing their somewhat damp snack, the three shinobi leapt through the rainsoaked trees and headed back towards the Village.

Leaf Weaponry was a small two-story building that looked like it had seen better days, but the store was neat inside and all the weapons gleamed. "It's not much," Tenten remarked as they entered, "but it's home. And well, it's a good back up plan too."

Hinata gave her an inquiring look, and Tenten's lips quirked in a smile. _So it was a Hyuuga thing to talk with eyes and keep words at a minimum,_ she thought amused. "I mean," Tenten explained, "that if I ever get injured severely so I can't be a kunoichi on active duty anymore, I'll still be able to make a living."

Tenten didn't notice the way Neji stiffened slightly at the casual reference to severe bodily harm, but Hinata, with the acute attention of a Hyuuga did. She wondered why the idea of Tenten being hurt badly would bother Neji-niisan enough that he would show a reaction. Perhaps he was slightly less uptight when outside the Hyuuga compound and hadn't even noticed that he'd produced a visible, albeit minimal reaction. Hinata of course had the sense not to remark on it—she certainly didn't want to strain her fragile-but-improving relations with her cousin.

And so, Hinata merely remarked, "That's a very sensible outlook."

Tenten snorted, "For all that stuff about stealth, strength, genius or whatever being the most important skills for a ninja, most people don't realize that what really matters in this line of work is practicality. Anyway, that's my dad," she said, walking towards the counter in the back where a man in his 60's was carefully polishing some three-pronged kunai. "Dad," she continued, "my friend wants to know a bit more about weapon summoning scrolls. She's interested in blanks."

The man came out from behind the counter, the slightest limp evident in his walk. He visually sized Hinata up and then said, "I wouldn't have pegged you for a weapons type."

Hinata almost facefaulted. She mentioned Paper-Using which Tenten's dad was familiar with and looked suitably impressed by—Hinata was tempted to ask him about Yomiko's mysterious past but it hardly seemed appropriate or tactful with both Neji-niisan and Tenten there as well. Instead, she restricted herself to explaining how she wanted to use blank scrolls to store large amounts of paper that she could use as Paper during a fight. She knew it would be a waste to have it pre-embedded with chakra and stored in the scrolls since it wouldn't last for long unused; besides, it would take way more chakra than she had to to pre-embed it in such a large quantity of paper. But still, it would be good to have plenty of paper accessible.

Tenten and her father explained the theory behind weapon summon scrolls and showed her how different ones stored different capacities. They also cautioned her that once unsealed, the same scroll could not be reused.

In the end, Hinata decided to take half a dozen 30 pound capacity scrolls. Tenten's eyebrows rose into her hairline at this and she said, "Are you sure? Most people don't even use more than two. It could be just a waste."

"I think I'll need to practice at first, sealing, unsealing and so on and see how it would work in combat conditions. These are mostly for trial-and-error, really," Hinata laughed softly and remarked, "Don't worry! I don't intend on going into a fight with all six at once!"

After profusely thanking both Tenten and her father, and assuring them both that she'd be back to let them know how it worked out, Hinata and Neji headed back to the Hyuuga compound. As they walked together in silence, Hinata felt like she was glowing with the success of the day. The rain had let up at last, and the gray wall of clouds parted just enough for them to see the last golden and orange streaks of the setting sun. She turned to Neji-niisan and said sincerely, "Thank for helping me so much today. And thank you for letting me meet Tenten-san. She's an amazing person."

Neji merely smiled, the slightest bit in response and the two continued in a companionable silence.

Since Hinata didn't have any imminent report for the D.C. looming over her, she had returned to the Hyuuga compound with Neji-niisan, and taken a nice long soak in the communal baths before sitting through a formal dinner with the Main family and some elite Branch members such as Neji-niisan. Dinner was as torturous and uncomfortable as always. She stared at her food throughout and only offered halting replies to the few derisive questions directed at her. Her father seemed to think she was wasting her time and most of the conversation consisted of Hanabi's day at the Academy, Neji's progress in his training, and odds and ends pertaining to Hyuuga clan business. Hinata supposed she could only take one step at a time, and she couldn't magically hope for a comfortable relationship with her family. At least now she was working to make a difference.

When Hinata finally went up to her room, her good mood of earlier was restored and even intensified when she found one of Naruto's frogs waiting for her rather impatiently on her desk.

After thanking the amphibian messenger, she happily took the scroll, lay down comfortably on her bed, and opened his letter, a smile already on her face.

_Moon,_

_Yeah, I guess when you get to see neat stuff like that, traveling can be cool. Usually, the Pervert Hermit and I didn't do anything like that. Usually he just got in trouble and I pretended to not know him. This one time, a woman asked if he was my granddad—I don't know who was grossed out more, me or him! What's your family like Moon? I've always kind of wondered. About families I mean. Heh, that's the nice thing about writing letters. I'd feel like an idiot saying that to someone, but somehow, writing it makes it feel like…I don't know…like it's in my head so it's ok to say dumb things._

_Before I started living on my own, I was in the orphanage, and no one wanted to hang around a snot-nosed kid so they put me in front of the TV all day. Heh, that's probably how I learned to talk—Spring would say it rotted my brains out I bet. Anyway, I used to watch all these sappy family dramas and pretend I had my own family too, and I guess now I kind of do have one. Even though the Pervert Hermit is an idiot, I like to think he's kind of like family—like some stupid uncle or something. And the Old Hag kinda like a grandma—I guess she'd flip and tell me she's not that old and that she's more like an aunt. And well, when I was a kid, I used to imagine that the Old Man of Fire was kinda like my granddad, and so that made Young Leaf my annoying younger brother. I always wanted one of those. And then the schoolteacher was the responsible older brother and sometimes, Spring acts like the bossy older sister. So I like to think that everyone back home, even the people I don't know yet, even the people who don't like me, we're all part of a big family. Dumb, huh?_

_Summer_

_._

.  


_To be continued...  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

**A/N:** I apologize for the long update time. To review some facts, this is post time-skip, after the Gaara kidnapping. At that point, my story diverges significantly from the Naruto timeline. Characters such as Sai and Yamato haven't been introduced yet (I don't know yet if I'm even going to use them). All of Team 10, 8, and Sakura have made chuunin. Team Gai had made jounin. Neji is ANBU. Konohamaru and Hanabi are in the same Academy class. Naruto's still a genin.

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* * *

_Summer,_

_I don't think your idea about family is dumb at all. It made me feel guilty though, because it made me  
realize I should value my own family more. As for what my family is like, well I don't think it counts as  
typical really. For all that it's a very big family, it's not a very close or demonstrative one. Really, how  
can it be when it's as divided as it is? My mother died when I was young, so I don't remember her that  
well. My father, well, he's more interested in me professionally than parentally. I wish I knew my cousin  
better. I wish I knew my little sister better. It feels…disloyal, somehow, to be admitting all this to you.  
I've never told anyone about it before. But after reading your last letter, I realize how important family  
**should** be. I can't let things go on as they have. It's a little daunting, though, and I don't even know  
where to start. Maybe I should make a to-do list._

Hinata paused in her composition of her response to Naruto. She wondered if she should leave that last line or cut it. Would he realize she was trying to make a joke? Or would he just think she was some weirdo who made lists obsessively? Well, she did have a tendency to make lists…Was it even funny? Oh, why was she even agonizing over it this much? Yes, it mattered to her a lot what Naruto-kun thought of her. She was trying to let him see she cared through these letters, she was trying to get to know him better. But if she couldn't try to be herself, then there was no point to it, was there. She decided to leave her lame joke in. Besides, she didn't have any more time to waste worrying about it. Her Hyuuga training would start in 20 mintues or so and she really had to finish getting ready.

Hinata wrapped a towel around her wet hair as she thought of what to write next. Her training session this morning with Neji-niisan had gone a little better than usual since she felt slightly less on edge around him.

_I'm running a bit late today, so the rest of this will be bit rushed. My schedule has gotten a bit hectic lately,  
what between training and other responsibilities. I'm sure you're looking forward to period of rest and  
relaxation at home. What's the first thing you want to do when you get back?_

_Moon_

That would have to do for now. Hinata quickly ran through the handseals to turn the letter into a Paper-bird, which promptly flapped off her desk and disappeared in a poof of smoke much like a the one created by a teleportation jutsu.

Hyuuga training, a meeting between the Hokage and the Civilian Council, and before Hinata knew it, it was early afternoon. She had just sat herself down at the main bar at Ichiraku and placed her order for tempura ramen for lunch when she was overtaken by a whirlwind of dust. It turned out to be Konohamaru, running as if his life depended on it. Hinata didn't actually know the boy although he was in the same Academy class as her sister, but she knew who he was from her days of watching Naruto from afar. Ok, if she were to be honest with herself, she would admit that it was close to stalking sometimes, but really, she had felt at the time that all she _could_ do was watch him. But not any longer, she was going to change all that, she was going to change that weak worthless Hinata who could not step out from the shadows—at that moment, the whirlwind named Konohamaru plopped himself down next to her, and appeared to be slouching and trying to hide behind her petite frame.

Not five minutes later, just as Hinata's order arrived and she broke apart her disposable chopsticks, a fuming Iruka-sensei descended on his hapless student. "Ko-no-ha-ma-ru!" he ground out through clenched teeth. Hinata would not have been surprised to see the proverbial steam coming out of his ears as he continued, "You're in big trouble this time! If you think you can get away with—"

"It wasn't me! Honest, Iruka-sensei! I was here the whole time," the boy wailed.

"You can't fool me with that nonsense. I know you're the one behind this latest prank!"

"But I really am innocent. Here," he added, gesturing wildly at the girl sitting next to him and turning sad puppy dog eyes on her, "You can ask her! She's been here the whole time, she can tell you I've been sitting all innocent right here."

Flustered, Hinata started turning red. She didn't know if she should defend Konohamaru, but that would mean lying to Iruka-sensei and she certainly couldn't do that. But the boy looked so pitiful. At last she temporized, and turned around on her stool and said to Iruka-sensei, "Yes, I was in the restaurant when he came in, Iruka-sensei, and he's been sitting here quietly since then," and forbore to mention that Konohamaru was probably guilty of whatever crime Iruka was accusing him for since she herself had only been in Ichiraku's for 15 minutes and Konohamaru for 5, if that.

Iruka lost much of his killing intent and angry aura as he turned to her in surprise. "Hinata-san, I didn't recognize you there. You don't have to call me 'sensei' anymore you know. After all, we are the same rank now." Smiling proudly at her, he added, "You've become a fine shinobi."

It was gratifying that one of her former teachers considered her both an adult and a successful ninja. "Thank you. But if you don't mind, I'd still like to use the title as a, a sign of respect for one of the first people who guided me on the path to becoming a shinobi." She felt a little worse for misleading him about Konohamaru, and in an attempt to appease and distract her conscience she added, "I've been, been keeping in touch with, with Naruto-kun, and thought you might want to know that he, he's doing well."

"You've been keeping in touch with him while he's on this extended mission?"

"Yes, um, since I work at the Diplomacy Corps, they thought it would be good practice in code and cipher so I started writing to Sakura and then Naruto-kun."

"Could you tell him to be careful for me in your next message?" Then, turning a suspicious look at Konohamaru, he added "Well, I'll let this delinquent off the hook this time since I can't pin him down. But if you pull something like this next time, Konohamaru, I'll make sure you get detention until you graduate." With that, the man nodded farewell to Hinata and left.

Konohamaru turned to the nice girl next to him with a gleeful smile on his face, "Hehe, thanks for saving me, Nee-chan!" and then without pausing for any response, he continued eagerly, "So you know, Naruto-niichan? And you're writing to him? Are you his girlfriend?"

Hinata felt that steam would be coming out of her own ears this time, not from anger but from sheer embarrassment and at last she managed to mumble, "No" into her ramen under Konohamaru's curious gaze.

So caught up in her own embarrassment, she failed to notice his relieved smile at her response and the light blush that was starting to cover the boy's own cheeks as he looked at the pretty girl sitting beside him. He'd been so absorbed in trying to escape from Iruka-sensei that he hadn't noticed how cute the girl was, although cute didn't seem to be the right word for her. She had such delicate features, a petite build, and a soft clear voice. Sweet, innocent. And she had saved him, too! An angel. She must be an angel.

Konohamaru had just developed his first crush.

Hinata was starting to feel even more awkward as the boy just seemed to sit there in a rapt silence while she stirred around her noodles nervously. In an attempt to relieve the tension, she at last ventured, "I have a younger sister who's in the Academy too…"

She was talking to him! "Oh, yeah? What's her name?"

"Hyuuga Hanabi."

"The Icicle?! _You're_ related to the Icicle?! That can't be right!"

That last remark worried Hinata enough that she pulled out of the social awkwardness she felt over attempting to make conversation with a complete stranger. How could Hinata possibly get to know her sister better if she were totally ignorant about Hanabi's school and social life? Of course, from those awful family dinners she knew Hanabi was excelling academically; she was the top of her class as a Hyuuga prodigy should be and most likely she would graduate as the top genin of her year—not just the best kunoichi but the best of _all_ the other genin. Yet to hear Konohamaru talk, Hinata worried that Hanabi was just as socially inept as she herself had been. Hinata having been bullied when she was young, and too weak, too shy, and simply too unpopular to fight back, had withdrawn further into her reserved shell which furthered her reputation as the timid girl. She had never had friends to begin with and the shyer she became, the less other kids wanted to approach her. While Hanabi's reputation seemed to be significantly different, she seemed to be having as tough a time at school. And to think, Hinata was such a horrible older sister, she had not even known until this moment. She resolved to use this encounter with Hanabi's classmate to find out more about her sister's school life. If she'd learned nothing else from the Diplomacy Corps, it was that nothing matters more than research research research. The more she knew about Hanabi in advance, the better Hinata would be able to approach her and attempt to bridge the rift in their relationship. Yes, she would get to know her sister better, and this would be the first step towards that.

Hinata was entirely unaware that the whole time she had been firming her resolve to improve things with Hanabi, Konohamaru had been wondering how the sweet angel before him could possibly be the _Icicle's _sister? Sure, now that he thought about it, they had the same eyes, the same hair, but that Hanabi was so stuck up and full of herself, there had to be some sort of mistake. They _couldn't_ be sisters.

With a goal in mind, Hinata tried to shove her social awkwardness aside and hesitantly began asking Konohamaru questions about Hanabi and what she was like at school. The boy had no sense of tact and bluntly told Hinata his sister never bothered to talk to any of the other kids, never hung out with _anybody_, had a vicious tongue, called everyone incompetent, and seemed to be inhuman. In short, she was stuck-up, unpopular, and the best ninja of them all. Of course he added that he wasn't going to be outdone by a girl for long. The only reason Hanabi was doing better than him was because he had more important things to occupy himself with than academics.

It struck Hinata that Hanabi treated her classmates exactly as she treated Hinata herself—as someone inferior and not worth her time. Hinata wondered, then, if it were at all possible to improve her relationship with someone who thought her so obviously beneath her. Yet she was making small improvements in Neji-niisan, wasn't she? And from Konohamru's description, while it seemed Hanabi was displaying the same single-minded focus of excelling at school as she did at home, and that she was ambitious and ruthless, she also seemed to be intensely isolated. And isolation was something Hinata could understand.

Her decision to get to know her sister reaffirmed, Hinata said a polite goodbye to Konohamaru, paid for her food, and left. She was entirely unaware as she stepped out of the restaurant that the boy was mentally beating himself up for not catching her name when Iruka-sensei had said it. Hmm, maybe he could ask Iruka-sensei tomorrow in class. But it might be a bad idea to remind the teacher of this very close escape. Or maybe, he thought shuddering, he could ask the Academy Icicle what her beautiful, gentle, angelic older sister's name was. Considering the way Hanabi would verbally cut him down, that should probably be his last resort. He just hoped he would run into his angel again.

* * *

That night at dinner, Hinata sat quietly eating her food and mulling over her conversation with Konohamaru. She wondered what would be the most diplomatic way of attempting a truce with Hanabi. She smiled mentally to think that D.C. jargon was even taking over her thoughts. But it was accurate for the situation. She _would_ have to be diplomatic. Hanabi had too much pride to take it well if she thought Hinata pitied her, and she might even be upset if she suspected at all that Hinata knew about her social life, or lack of one. 

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she had stopped paying attention to the stilted dinner conversation, but at last she noticed there was an expectant silence. She looked up from her rice bowl to find everyone's gaze focused on her.

"Well?" Hiashi said impatiently, glaring at Hinata.

Hinata could feel her heart pounding and her breath coming in shallow nervous gasps. Apparently, someone had asked her a question and now they were all waiting for the answer. She flushed with mortification, and managed to stutter an apology. To think she'd made such a fool of herself in front of everyone. And that all the people here despised her made it so much worse. All 20 or so members of the Main house—her father, her sister, and herself, along with Main house elders most of whom openly disapproved of Hinata as too weak to be Clan Heir—attended the these ghastly dinners along with a few notable members from the Branch house such as Neji-niisan and a handful of the really senior Branch elders.

Finally someone took pity on her. Kiyoko-san, one of the Main house elders, a woman in her 50's said, "Makoto-san asked you to repeat an idea about Branch servants you mentioned to him during a Hyuuga training sessions. He said that it might be sound." Although perhaps the woman didn't feel all that sympathetic for she added, "Although if you can't even make the effort to listen to a simple request by one of your elders, I don't know how sound any idea of yours can be."

Hinata felt herself wilt even more. But the idea had mattered to her then, and it mattered to her now, so at last she managed to stutter out what she had mentioned in passing to Makoto-san during a session last week: that considering the wage differences between Branch servants employed by the Hyuuga and civilian servants employed by the wealthy in the Village, the Hyuuga could also attempt to cover other expenses such as medical costs for Branch servants.

"And why would this be a feasible idea, Hinata?" Hiashi asked, although he was looking at Makoto-san, the Main house elder who had apparently initiated the entire thing by asking Hinata to repeat her idea about Branch servants, as he said this. Hiashi didn't bother to spare a glance for his daughter but, Hinata thought, at least his tone was neutral.

She had decided she would change the Hyuuga, hadn't she? If she couldn't even take this small step of trying to improve the working conditions Branch members by mentioning her paltry idea, then she wasn't living up to her ninja way. So, she gathered up her courage once more, and elaborated the reasoning behind her idea in a much steadier voice, "After attending some meetings between the Civilian Council and the Hokage through a Diplomacy Crops assignment, I was surprised to learn that civilian servants are compensated at a much more competitive rate than Hyuuga Branch servants." She imagined she was giving a report at the D.C. or even writing a report at the D.C. instead of facing this gamut of unsympathetic eyes. That helped organize her thoughts and speak in a professional manner. "One reason for this disparity is that civilian servants have a pool of employers vying for their services, while Hyuuga Branch servants can only be employed here. Another is that while Branch servants earn a lower wage than their civilian counterparts, the Hyuuga provide other benefits such as housing without charge within the Hyuuga Compound. In light of that argument, it could be argued that comparatively speaking, the Hyuuga is already providing more than enough compensation. But considering the financial health of the Clan, it is entirely feasible to include medical coverage for Branch servants and their families as part of the compensation for services rendered. Besides, this situation is different from that of the civilian servants. After all, the Branch are not simply servants and the Main masters," here Hinata paused and looked briefly at Neji, thinking back to the harsh look on his face when he misunderstood her request and thought she was treating him as nothing more than a servant. She hoped he would understand what she was trying to say when she concluded, "We are all family."

Well, maybe that had sounded a bit stiff and like she was reading out a report, but at least she had gotten all her ideas out there coherently and without stumbling over any words.

Hinata looked at the faces around her hoping that would reveal something about the reception of her idea. They all looked just as disapproving as before, but considering they were all Hyuuga, they would hardly give away much from facial expressions. Everyone did look slightly surprised, the Branch elders a little more so than the Main elders, and Neji-niisan was looking at her appraisingly.

At last her father said, "It bears looking into. The council of elders and I will take your suggestion under advisement." And then without missing a beat, he turned to the elders, and said, "How would you assess the progress the three of them have made in their Hyuuga training?" The question seemed the ratchet up the tension even more. Her father had just asked the question that most concerned everyone in the room. It was an oblique and unofficial inquiry into who individual council members would support as Clan Heir.

Makoto-san, an old man in his 70's with a face like hatchet was the first to speak, "If only administrative and financial expertise is considered, Hinata-san by far exceeds her sister and even her cousin."

"Well, of course," Kiyoko-san countered, "Given her broader range of experience and knowledge and experience in those areas because of her ninja specialization, it only stands to reason. I'm sure the either Neji or Hanabi-san could to equally well given the same time. Besides, one must consider the much more important aspect of ninja proficiency. In those, Hinata-san lags so far behind, she shouldn't even be considered."

The elders bandied the points back and forth, coming down on either Makoto's side or Kiyoko's. They argued on for quite a while, discussing Hinata, Hanabi, and Neji as if the three of them weren't even in the room. At last Hiashi ended the impromptu discussion by saying, "Yes, there is still much left to take into account."

And then her father said something that stunned Hinata so much she couldn't decide if she were dreaming or not: "But considering Hinata's exceptional performance tonight, I have decided to grant her access to the Main library. Any objections?" Hiashi inquired, looking at everyone in turn.

There were two libraries in the Hyuuga Compound, the Branch library, which was open to all and contained no sensitive information and the Main library which was hidden somewhere underneath it and contained all the forbidden scrolls, books recording secret techniques, and confidential history and information that the Clan guarded jealously. Only the Clan Head, the Main elders, some Branch elders, and select handful of other Hyuuga had access to the Main library. For her father to offer this privilege to Hinata of all people, it couldn't possibly be true could it? Hinata held her breath as inevitably Kiyoko-san or one of the other elders who particularly disliked her would no doubt raise his or her voice in strenuous objection to the Clan Disappointment being accorded the privilege of accessing the Main library.

While Hiashi had been addressing the elders, it was Hanabi who spoke up angrily, "How can you do that, father? _I _don't have access yet!"

The Clan Head calmly overrode his youngest daughter's protests by saying, "Yes, you must earn it." And that mild rebuke—mild for a Hyuuga—had Hanabi seething inside and glaring at her sister. Turning to Hinata, Hiashi added, "Neji will show you how to enter it."

No one else objected. Hinata was becoming more and more convinced that this had to be a dream. True it had started out like a nightmare with that awful moment when everyone was staring at her with hostile eyes and expecting her to say something foolish, but somewhere along the way, it had changed for the better.

Dinner ended soon after that and the everyday details of the Branch servants coming in to clear the dishes convinced her that perhaps this was reality after all. As Neji left, Hinata hurried after him and asked if he would mind showing her how to enter the Main library tonight. He gestured for her to follow him and began walking in the direction of the Branch library, which was built in the same style as the rest of the Hyuuga Compound: traditional wooden structures with sliding doors and rice paper screens.

As they reached the library, Neji at last broke the silence between them. "You must be wondering," he remarked, "how long I've been able to access it. Hiashi-sama granted me access shortly after that first genin exam. I suspect guilt played a large role in his decision," he added cryptically.

That must mean, Hinata thought amazed, that Neji-niisan had figured out kaiten _all on his own_. He didn't have anyone in the Hyuuga training him and he hadn't been able to access forbidden training scrolls from the Main libraries so he had taught himself the technique simply by observation. Yes, prodigy was the right word to describe him.

The two entered the Branch library—it was all one large room lined with bookshelves along the walls and other bookshelves dividing it into smaller sections. Neji walked to the back and paused in one of the alcoves created by the wall-shelves on one side and towering bookshelves on the other two, and performed a series of handseals which Hinata memorized on sight; somehow she didn't think he'd take it well if she asked him to repeat it for her. Then, he touched a certain book and suddenly, a trapdoor appeared in the floor, and opening it revealed a staircase.

They walked down the dark staircase, and Hinata saw there was a door at the bottom with a paper seal stuck in the center of it. "Watch carefully," Neji instructed, and performed another series of handseals and then touched the markings on the seal in a particular order. "Now activate your byakugan. What do you see?"

"There's another set of markings on the paper seal that I couldn't see before," Hinata said surprised.

Neji performed yet another set of handseals and touched the markings only visible with the byakugan in a particular order, and pushed the door opened. "This is important," he cautioned. "If you merely undo the first set of seals on the door and attempt to enter, the entire room will self-destruct and burn all the books within."

That made sense, Hinata thought. Only a Hyuuga would be able to see the secondary sealing and only a Hyuuga given access would know how to undo it, so if any intruder attempted to access the library, the Hyuuga would be alerted and the books would never fall in the wrong hands. But it also meant carelessness would be devastating. If she ever simply forgot about it, she would destroy decades worth of learning.

"Once you enter," Neji continued, "the door seals behind you and the trapdoor closes. To get out, you must perform the exact same seals on the other sides. That will open both the door and the trapdoor at the top of the stairs. So don't go in if you can't remember everything. Not very many people use this library; it might be days or even months before anyone else ventures down here and finds you if you get locked inside." Hinata was more touched than words could express when Neji added, "Do you want me to repeat any of the handseals?"

"Thank you, Neji-niisan" she said softly. He cared. He had cared enough to at last see Hinata for who she was. "I think remember the handseals, but could you run through one more time just in case?"

They both entered, and Hinata saw that there were two rooms, the first larger than the second. The first room was meticulously organized, and Neji pointed out that it contained all the useful records, "Here you'll find scrolls describing various techniques, mostly Hyuuga techniques, but not all of them. There's also some advanced healing, summoning, and other things here as well."

The second room was a mess, stacks of journals and scrolls heaped in dusty piles. Neji frowned in distaste, "This room has personal records—no one really cares for any of it. Diaries, journals, kept by deceased Hyuuga, some bookkeeping records and such, some of them going back to when the Clan started. It's mostly worthless."

As Neji headed towards the door, Hinata said, "I think I'll stay and look around."

"Very well. But unseal the door so I know you remember it."

Hinata smiled. That would have been an insult before. He would have said bluntly that he thought her incompetent, unable to memorize the handseals even after two demonstrations, but now she could see it had become something else—a veiled gesture of brotherly concern. She performed the handseals, he pushed the door open, and left her to peruse the library.

She glanced idly at the titles in the organized room but eventually headed back to the second room, really it was almost like a storeroom, so cramped and messy. Hinata wondered if her mother had kept a diary, but couldn't remember seeing one from her vague childhood memories. She decided to look through some of the books anyway, hoping there was one and that she would find it here.

The stacks were in vaguely chronological piles and Hinata began browsing through the ones that were in the right range for her mother's lifetime. Hoping to find her mother's diary, she found a Branch servant's record instead. As she skimmed through one Hyuuga Noburu's journal, she found herself sucked into the man's witty sense of humor and captivating anecdotes.

She hadn't found her mother's diary, but this in its own way was worthwhile. The deceased Hyuuga Noburu had been a Branch servant since her mother had been a child and he would mention her every now and then. There were more references to her after she married the Clan Head of course, and Hinata was glad for each precious story that mentioned her—she was gratifying to see that her mother was to others as Hinata remembered her: a gentle, considerate woman, who cared for all around her. Hinata wondered if her mother had been as worried about the Branch/Main divide as Hinata herself was, but that train of thought was derailed when she came across a story in that journal of Noburu-san's—after reading so much of his journal, it almost felt as if she knew him—that shocked her to the core. It recounted the kidnapping attempt made on her as a child by the Cloud and what had come to pass between Hiashi and her uncle Hizashi who she only remembered vaguely as he too had died when she was a child.

Hinata sat down on the dusty floor in shock. She had not realized that the Cloud plot had continued past the kidnapping attempt. That her uncle had been called to pay the price for the Clan. No wonder Neji-niisan had hated her. Wasn't it all her fault in a way? If she hadn't been so pathetically weak, so easily kidnapped, Neji's father would never have been sacrificed to the Cloud in order to protect the secret of the Hyuuga byakugan.

It was something of a startling realization that the curse seal she hated and lived in fear of—for if Hinata failed to become the Clan Heir, she would be branded with it, and if she succeeded, her sister would be and either way, the outcome seemed terrible—actually served a vital purpose. She had realized vaguely that if she wanted to change the Hyuuga, the Main/Branch divide and the curse seal which represented it would have to be done away with, but she had never really thought of how that would be accomplished or how vulnerable it would make the Hyuuga. If the seal were removed, then the secrets of the Hyuuga eyes could be gathered from any corpse. And yet, if protecting those eyes was so important, then shouldn't _all_ Hyuuga have to bear the curse seal? That was the real problem, wasn't it? The Cloud had been able to ask for her father's dead body because they knew as a Main house member, his eyes wouldn't be sealed and they could try to use them. Leaving the Main house members unmarked was a liability. And the curse seal itself was an atrocity—to live in the constant fear of knowing that a Main house member could kill you with a thought, to have your own abilities locked away, to know that you could never leave the Hyuuga if you wanted to, to know you could never do what you wanted at all if it conflicted with the Main house desires and rules because they could just kill you or torture you if they didn't agree. It was awful and needed to be abolished. But it also had to be replaced.

Reading about her uncle's tragedy, Hinata realized that she could not simply hope the curse seal would go away. She needed to find a system that could take its place, because simply eliminating it would create chaos. She wondered if there were information on the curse seal down here. She would need all the help she could get if she wanted to develop a seal that would merely close off the Hyuuga eyes once the bearer of the seal died. A seal that wouldn't have the powers of torture, control, and murder built into it.

Hinata went back to that first room of the Main library and began putting her research skills—finally honed from hours of endless bookwork at the D.C.—into practice. She spent hours looking through concordances and indices and then pored over all the books and scrolls in the section on seals. They didn't even mention the curse seal. _Perhaps the development and branding of curse seal is something so secret, so dangerous, they decided not to even put the process into writing,_ Hinata thought. _Instead of writing it down, it's probably passed down orally in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Except they didn't realize that with something as awful as the curse seal, all hands are the wrong hands._

In a last desperate effort, she returned to the back room and started going through journals. It didn't look like anyone had gone to the trouble of censoring these personal accounts. Perhaps some Hyuuga through the generations had let something slip or had even actively recorded details concerning the curse seal. Perhaps some of the older diaries would even have information about how the curse seal was developed.

She realized it must be long past midnight now, and considering she would have to wake up in a handful of hours and spar against Neji-niisan, she should probably get some rest. She went to the earliest stacks of records, picked up the journal on the top of the pile and then decided to call it a night. She resolved to read at least one journal a week, taking copious notes on anything regarding seals, and for that matter, if there were any mention of ninjutsu that seemed interesting. This was an entirely untapped resource before her and it would be a shame to let it go to waste, Hinata thought wearily as she performed the two sets of handseals and headed out the door of the Main library.

* * *

As Hinata lay in her bed that night, she couldn't help reflecting on just how much had happened in this crazy day. The library, however, was the most precious thing, and she hugged it close to herself. She had taken that first tiny step in trying to change the Hyuuga today at dinner and it had made Neji-niisan acknowledge her. She had found brief aching glimpses of her mother in that diary by Hyuuga Noburu. She wondered idly if Hanabi would like to see those passages too. She wondered if Hanabi missed their mother—but their mother had died when Hanabi was only a year old. Did that mean Hanabi missed her more or less than Hinata since she probably couldn't even remember their mother properly? 

As she was about to fall asleep, her mind drifted back to that letter she'd written Naruto that morning—so much had happened today that it felt like she'd written it ages ago. _Hmmm,_ she thought jokingly, _there's so much I need to do maybe making a to-do list would be a good idea after all! Where would I begin… _

_Hyuuga Hinata's To-Do List_  
-become friends (at least) with Naruto-kun  
-get to know Neji-niisan better (that's going ok)  
-get to know Hanabi better (still a tough one…and after what happened at dinner, she knew her sister's behavior would only be more frigid towards her)  
-become stronger (a long way to go on that…)  
-change the Hyuuga

_That last one seems impossibly large,_ Hinata mused sleepily. It all seemed too hard. Maybe she should give up. But Naruto-kun would never give up. How could she read his next letter if she knew deep down she wasn't even worthy of reading that letter since she had betrayed her ninja way, his ninja way? No, she wouldn't be old weak Hinata, she would _change _that old weak Hinata, and she would change the Hyuuga too. Maybe it would be better to break it up into smaller steps. Her last thought as she fell asleep was that researching curse seals would the logical first step.  
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_To be continued..._


	10. Chapter 10

**NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW CHAPTER**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on his training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. Meanwhile, the ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina, maybe others.

A/N: Since no one bothered to comment on my pathetically written fight scene between Neji and Hinata, I've decided I should stick to my strengths and not bother with writing out battles since I can't do it well. So, just use your imagination to figure out how it goes between Kurenai and Hinata. Also, this chapter is dedicated to my lovely reviewers: **glorfy taintedlegacy**, **GWise**, **chisay**, who gave me the needed motivation to update.

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_Moon,_

_First thing I want to do when I get back? Well, the first thing I'll have to do—no the one I **want** to will be cleaning out my apartment. I realized some time after I left that I didn't clear out my fridge! I bet the whole place stinks by now and my plants are all dead too. Even the cactus. Most people don't think about it, but even the poor cactus needs water, you know. And after cleaning out my apartment, I'd probably have to do laundry right away since all the decent clothes I have are with me right now and they'll be gross when I get back. Man, I hate doing chores! But I guess that's just how it is, you know what I mean? Like if you don't cook, you don't eat, so even if you're tired, you gotta cook. Heh. Even if by cooking I mean making instant ramen._

_Now that I'm thinking about all the stuff I have to do when I get back, I kinda don't want to go back and deal with it! But you asked what was the first think I **want** to do, right? Hmmm, that's a toughie. Guess I want a nice big meal at Ichiraku's. I bet no one would be surprised to hear that! What about you, what do you like to do when you get back home after being gone a while?_

_Summer_

* * *

Whenever she wasn't reading journals kept by deceased Hyuuga from the backroom of the Main library in order to uncover something about the Hyuuga cursed seal, Hinata was training as hard as she could in every free hour she had. Her evaluation spar with Kurenai-sensei was coming up, and while she didn't think she was ready for even thinking about jounin, she didn't want her old teacher to be horrified by her pathetic ninja skills. Hinata knew the spar itself was not a test. The spar was a favor Kurenai-sensei was doing for her—her old teacher would tell her honestly if she thought Hinata should begin training or not for the grueling jounin exam or not. Even knowing that it was stupid and irrational, some part of Hinata deep down was afraid that if she performed badly enough for Kurenai-sensei, they could demote her from chuunin back to genin. Hinata knew that was farfetched, unlikely, and not going to happen in a million years, but still, she couldn't help fretting about it. 

Already she was planning out the training routine she would follow for the rest of the day as soon as this Hokage meeting she was transcribing right now finished. Hinata tried to keep her mind on what was being said, but it was hard to focus because her thoughts kept drifting to her anxiety over the evaluation spar next week. At last, it looked like every last council member had had his or her say and the Hokage said she would deliberate over their advice. People began stirring from their seats, some clustering in groups and discussing possible outcomes or exchanging pleasantries. Hinata gathered her papers and unobtrusively began making her way to the door when she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

The girl turned around to see that it was the Hokage herself who stood behind her. "Ah, Hyuuga Hinata, just the person I wanted to talk to."

For one irrational moment, Hinata wondered if they were going to demote her to genin even before she failed the evaluation spar with Kurenai-sensei. Then she gathered her wits together, and said, "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

The older woman guided the two them down the hall and stopped in a convenient alcove so they could have a little privacy. "I've seen you at many of my meetings lately—and aren't they all tedious?—and I have to say, I'm glad to see you've come so far with the Diplomacy Crops." Tsunade smiled encouragingly at the girl who still seemed to be a little uneasy in her presence, "Yes, I'm glad I recommended you to them."

Hinata tried to pull herself together. She didn't want the Hokage to think she was incompetent _now_. "Yes, thank you. For recommending me I mean. I've really enjoyed working with the D.C."

"It must be mutual: I hear nothing but glowing reports about you from them." The Hokage smiled cockily, oddly reminding Hinata of Naruto-kun, and added "I knew you'd fit in well there." Of course Hinata had no way of knowing the Hokage was thinking of her 'fill in the blank' method of trying to match up ninja and vacancies in departments. "Now, I wanted to talk to you for business reasons as well. You're in touch with Naruto and Sakura while they're traveling, correct? I want you to send out a message to them immediately that I've ordered they return at once. Tell them I'll explain when they're back in Konoha. Make sure they realize it's urgent."

After working so long at the D.C., Hinata knew better than to pry and ask what had come up. The information would be most likely confidential and sensitive and if the Hokage hadn't already told her, she certainly wasn't going to just because Hinata asked. So the girl merely responded with "I understand, Hokage-sama. I'll send out the message right away."

The woman smiled at her once more, nodded and walked on.

* * *

A handful of days later, Hinata couldn't decide if she was more nervous or more excited about Naruto-kun's imminent return. Of course, Hinata realized he wouldn't rush out and seek her as soon as he got back, but she hoped that he would come see her in person eventually after he made it back to Konoha. After all, they were getting to be friends now, right? She definitely felt as if she'd gotten to know him much more on a personal level than she had before because of the letters; she knew more now about his thoughts and opinions than she had ever been able to gather by simply watching him in their Academy days. And she hoped that maybe he was getting to know her too. That maybe he cared to get to know her through those letters. 

But Naruto-kun and Sakura would most likely return around the same time as her spar with Kurenai-sensei, and there was no doubt about how Hinata felt about that. Nervousness and dread won hands down.

* * *

The morning of the evaluation spar dawned clear. Since mornings were the best time for Kurenai-sensei, Hinata had taken the unprecedented step of canceling her sparring session with Neji-niisan—the only time he ever missed those sessions was when he was on an ANBU mission or if she were on an extended mission of her own. But she had started to feel so much more comfortable around him, she had even mentioned to him that this morning, her old jounin-instructor wanted to discuss the possibility of her trying out for the jounin exam eventually. He hadn't sneered and said it was hopeless for someone as weak as she was. He hadn't even scoffed. Instead, he had merely asked her to let him know what Kurenai-sensei's suggestions were. Yes, they were almost friends now, she and Neji-niisan . Or about as close to friends anyone could really be with Hyuuga Neji. 

Hinata arrived at Training Area 11—the traditional training spot of the old Team 8—just as the sun had finished rising and began running through simple katas to warm up while she waited for Kurenai-sensei. The woman got there soon after and nodded approvingly to see that Hinata was preparing herself.

Her words, however, startled Hinata. "This is not a spar." Kurenai said without preamble. "This is a fight. Your objective is to defeat me. Use whatever means necessary."

Hinata hesitated uncertainly, and in that time, Kurenai seemed to melt into the trees. Hinata knew that she couldn't allow the woman the chance to use genutsu since only the most advanced techniques would work against doujutsu users such as the Hyuuga. And since advanced genjutsu required much too much concentration to be used in direct combat, she couldn't give her teacher the time to focus and spin an illusion elaborate enough that it might even fool the byakugan.

Hinata activated her byakugan. The fight had begun.

* * *

By the time Hinata conceded defeat and collapsed on the ground, covered with cuts and bruises, nursing a sprained wrist and a head throbbing from genjutsu residue, the sun had cleared the trees. She had used up one of her summoning scrolls filled with Paper and realized she needed to practice more with handling that much Paper at once. The sleeves and several inches of the pant legs of Paper-clothes had long since frayed as she used them in battle. 

Kurenai, also looking worse for the wear, leapt down from a tree branch and helped her former student stand up and limp over to a tree. They both sat down in its shade, Hinata leaning heavily against its massive trunk. Somehow, even though she'd gotten her ass kicked, the fight had been invigorating. She could tell that Kurenai-sensei hadn't been holding back—well, she'd been holding back in the sense that she wasn't trying to kill Hinata outright, but she'd pulled out all the stops, she was treating Hinata like an adult, like a competent ninja and fighting her with all her skills. Of course after such a punishing battle, Hinata didn't think she had enough strength left to even squeeze a tube of toothpaste. She had no idea how she would actually muster enough energy to walk home afterwards.

As Hinata leaned against the tree with her eyes closed, Kurenai remarked, "You did well." Of course that remark had Hinata opening her eyes and looking at her old teacher in disbelief. That was "well"? She'd failed miserably. Kurenai-sensei was battered, but nowhere near the entirely beaten condition Hinata herself was in. Kurenai smiled, her crimson eyes lighting up with sardonic amusement, "I can see you don't believe me. Let me elaborate. You did well. The Hinata I knew as a genin would never have been able to fight her all against me, against someone she knew. But you went all out. You fought like a ninja.

"In terms of mechanics, of course there's room for improvement, just as there is room for improvement for every living shinobi. Paper Using serves you well, and I'm impressed by the flexibility you display in shifting between various forms of fighting. I can't help you with the Paper Using, but I suspect there's still room for experimentation there on your part. And your taijutsu needs significant work. I feel that you might have neglected it while trying so hard on everything else. You also need to increase your endurance and stamina, and training in taijutsu should help with those as well."

Kurenai smiled again before continuing, "And now the part you've been waiting for: I would recommend you for the jounin exam. With a year or two of determined training, I think you can handle it." Kurenai held up a hand preemptively as she said, "Listen to what I have to say before you start protesting, Hinata. I know how serious this is. I'm not just making an empty recommendation to you. The jounin exam is not the sort of thing you can take over and over like you can with the chuunin exam. This is not an exam ninja risk if they don't think they can make it. The rate of mortality for failure is astronomical. 95 percent of those who fail the exam _die_. That's also why the promotion rate is so high—only those chuunin who are sure of passing beyond a shadow of a doubt take it. I would not lead any of my former students into such a dangerous exam with false assurances. In fact, if by the time you decide you want to take it and I don't think you're ready, I can lodge an objection and the Hokage can even prevent you from taking the exam. The Village doesn't want to lose good chuunin in a fatal effort at promotion if it's clear they can't make it. The fact that I'm recommending you take it eventually means that I think you _can_ handle it. I certainly don't think you're ready now. But I think that if you continue as you have been, you will be more than ready a couple of years from now. There, I'm done lecturing now."

At last Hinata spoke, "I'm honored, Kurenai-sensei that you think so highly for me. But I still don't think…."

"Do you think you can't do it or are you afraid of dying?"

When Hinata merely stared at the ground, Kurenai added, "There's no shame if you are afraid of dying. _Everyone_ is. My point is that if you decide you don't want to train for the jounin exam, I want you to make that decision for a valid reason. Thinking you can't do it is not valid."

Softly, Hinata ventured, "Could we talk about this a bit more?"

Kurenai offered her former student a hand up. "Yes, let's discuss it in more detail over lunch sometime." And then smiling added, "Your treat."

Hinata gave back an answering shy smile.

Kurenai assessed her former student's condition quickly. The poor girl probably felt like all her muscles were made of overboiled noodles and decided that Hinata's self pride was low enough that it didn't need to sink any lower. So she decided to maintain Hinata's fiction that the girl wanted to train a little more before going home. Kurenai knew as well as Hinata the girl probably couldn't move at more than a snail's pace right now. But with that offer to buy lunch, Hinata had signaled to her former teacher that she wanted to be treated as an adult, as an equal, and Kurenai certainly wasn't going to step on the girl's already fragile ego by offering her a shoulder on the walk home. No, the determiment to her self-worth would be much worse than the awful soreness of her muscles when she finally did manage to make it back in the condition she was in. And so after setting up a time for that lunch discussion, the jounin smiled nonchalantly and left.

Hinata leaned against her tree.

* * *

Fortunately, she'd brought a small bag of supplies with her, and so she sat munching a ration bar and drinking from a canteen while reading yet another Hyuuga journal, which she'd also had the foresight to pack. It wasn't like she was expecting to be beat up into a pulp, but she tended to carry a journal with her at all times so whenever she found an idle moment, she could get some work done. And there seemed to be an unending supply from where this came from. She still hadn't made a dent at all in the personal records of the Clan founders alone. And she had yet to learn anything of substance about the cursed seal. 

A couple hours later, early afternoon found Hinata still sitting under her tree, far too tired to move when she saw two figures heading towards her. It was Kiba and Akamaru. Well, her teammates had seen her in worse condition than this, but that had been during some of their most desperate missions.

Team 8 had an unspoken rule that whenever any of the members had time, they would go practice at Training Area 11. None of there schedules allowed them to set out a specific time to train together, but if they all practiced at TA 11 when they had time, eventually two and occasionally even all three of them did end up meeting up together.

From a distant the boy had thought Hinata was merely resting under the tree, but as he drew closer, he could see the damage not only to her but to the landscape around them. He ran the last few yards, and kneeling before Hinata, his hands on her shoulders, he yelled directly into her face, "What happened here? Who did this to you?" Akamaru's huge form crouched before her, whining deep in his throat, really the dog was so big now, it sounded more like a rumble than a whine.

Hinata almost laughed at his horrified expression. Really the way he was acting, it was like he expected her to say it was a missing-nin that had her battered her up. But Hinata kept the laughter in and answered with a straight face, "Kurenai-sensei." The way Kiba's face tried to transition from horrified to confused and somehow ended up getting stuck between the two was too much for her though. She laughed harder than she had in ages, she laughed until her sides hurt. It wasn't all that funny, but Hinata felt that she'd been living on the fine edge of tension so long over this evaluation spar that some of her amusement now was probably just relief at getting it over with.

And now Kiba was looking at her like she was crazy, "Really, Kiba I'm all right!"

"All right?! You look like you can barely move. I'd say chakra exhaustion and physical exhaustion."

"Yes, but not to a dangerous point. It's just that it's been a while since I've had such an all out fight," and here Hinata couldn't help looking a little accusingly at her teammate. Shouldn't he have been going all out on her all along so she could become a stronger shinobi rather than coddling her?

Of course, since Kiba didn't do subtle, it all went over his head, but Hinata was surprised to see a look of comprehension come over his face. "She was evaluating you, wasn't she." It wasn't even a question. "For the jounin exam."

"You too?" And that was only natural. Kiba was a much stronger fighter and better ninja than she was. If Kurenai-sensei had thought Hinata could do it, no doubt someone like Kiba could definitely handle the jounin exam.

"Yeah, last week." Then he grinned sheepishly. "I couldn't move again until yesterday."

"Maybe she went easier on me, after all," Hinata said feeling dejected. "I'm not in as bad shape. I'll probably be fine tomorrow, just unbelievably sore." So Kurenai-sensei hadn't been treating her like an adult after all. Kiba was better than her and if Kurenai-sensei had left him immobile for days, then she must have let Hinata off easy. She felt her heart sink.

"So what'd she tell you?" Unaccountably, Kiba looked uneasy as he asked the question and then rushed on without waiting for an answer. "I bet she sparred with Shino too. Maybe we should all talk it over, you know like in the old Team 8 days."

"That does sound like a good idea. Do you know where Shino-kun is? I don't think he's on a mission…"

"I'll send Akamaru to go fetch him if he's home." Hinata smiled at that. She didn't think Kiba even realized he'd made it sound like Akamaru was going to play fetch with Shino instead of a stick.

As the great dog bounded off in pursuit of Shino's scent, Kiba had started warming up, so Hinata picked up the journal she was reading once more. "What's that?" the boy asked curiously.

"Just a, a project I'm working on."

"For that diplomacy-thing?"

"Something like that." Hinata didn't want to tell anybody about her radical plans for a new **_un_**cursed seal until it looked like something more than a crazy idea she'd come up with in the middle of the night. Besides, she didn't really want word to get out about it all; if any Hyuuga heard about it, they'd probably have her declared a danger or a madwoman. Hmm, that's something she hadn't thought of either. If—no, _when_ she had to think positive—she developed the new seal, how would she get the Clan to implement it and phase out the awful cursed seal? And was there a way the cruse seal could be removed? Otherwise, the Main house might just adopt the new seal and keep branding the Branch house with the old one and that wouldn't change anything at all. She certainly couldn't imagine persuading the Clan to give up a custom that seemed to have developed around the time the Hyuuga had helped settle Konoha. _No, don't worry about that now, _Hinata told herself firmly. _You're getting ahead of yourself. What happened to one step at a time?_ And the first step was still finding an alternative to the cursed seal because she couldn't even ask them to give it up if she couldn't find a way to replace it.

Lost in her own thoughts, Hinata had long since forgotten about Kiba's presence until Akamaru came bounding back through the underbrush, with Shino leaping from tree to tree behind him.

He jumped down into the middle of the training area and remarked dryly, "You called?"

"Yeah, I wanted to train. And maybe we could go out for drinks afterwards." Hearing Hinata's nervous sound of protest he turned to the girl and added, "You don't actually have to get something alcoholic, Hinata, I really just want to talk to you guys."

Shino turned to Hinata and said in his usual offbeat humor, "Kiba wants to talk? Now I think we've heard it all."

"Don't be an ass," Kiba growled, rushing the other boy. They started sparring.

* * *

By sunset, the boys looked like they wanted to call it a day and Hinata had finished her journal and felt like she could probably walk again even though she could feel each step jarring her already aching body. Kiba still seemed set on going to a bar and Hinata resigned herself to it as he led them to one of the places he preferred. 

Shino and Kiba both ordered beers while Hinata settled for an iced tea. It's not that she had anything against drinking, she just had an enormous guilt complex. She was sure she would be caught red-handed although no one had ever bothered to card a ninja. Most civilians figured if they were considered old enough to kill and risk being killed, than they could probably handle liquor. Besides, the idea of going home with alcohol on her breath made her shudder in equal parts fear and dread.

As the three chuunin settled themselves at the bar, Kiba his voice uncharacteristically nervous asked, "So, what'd Kurenai-sensei say to you guys about the jounin exam?"

Shino, in his usual minimal style, merely said, "It is a possibility, but there are other factors to consider as well."

Kiba took a swig of his beer. "So you mean she told you that you should train for it?" he asked to clarify. Shino merely nodded his head in response.

"What about you, Hinata?"

"She, she said that if I trained hard for a few years, then maybe…but I don't know…"

Meanwhile, Shino seemed to be deep in conversation with a bug perched on his forefinger. At some unspoken signal, the bug flew off his finger and dove into his glass, which of course elicited the loud protest from Kiba, "Eeewww, gross. Man, I'm trying to drink here. Keep your bugs outta the beer."

"She asked to try some since my bodily functions are always altered afterwards. She was curious."

"Whatever. Just keep the bugs out. It's not like I brought Akamaru in here."

"Because he wouldn't fit."

Before things could degenerate into an all out argument, Hinata hesitatingly asked Kiba, "What about you, Kiba-kun? What did Kurenai-sensei tell you."

The boy looked away embarrassed. Hinata was struck by how oddly he was behaving. Usually, Kiba would announce his own news first before asking anyone else how they did. She discovered the reason for this uncharacteristic behavior when he finally answered, "She said if I tried really hard, but things don't look to good as they are. She said I might be better off where I am, that I might never make jounin."

Hinata felt shocked to the core. How could Kurenai-sensei recommend so strongly she train for the exam while telling Kiba-kun he might be better off staying a chuunin? Kiba-kun was stronger than her! "But, Kiba-kun, that can't be right. I mean you're much better than I am!"

Shino startled them both by turning away from the bug on his forefinger who had returned from her dip in his glass, and saying decisively, "No. He's stronger. Not better. There's a difference."

"Hey, don't diss me, bug boy!" Kiba responded heatedly, but then a much more serious expression came over his face as he stared at the half full glass of beer in front of him. "But that's what Kurenai-sensei said too. That strength by itself isn't enough. And I don't know. I don't know what I want anymore. I mean isn't chuunin good enough? She said there was a good possibility of dying in that exam."

Bizarrely, Hinata found herself in the role of encouraging reckless behavior whereas usually, hers was the voice of caution, "But, Kiba-kun, isn't that what we thought when we first took the chuunin exam, but we all decided to do it after all."

The boy slouched down on his stool. "That was different, Hinata. I mean sure we coulda died, but it wasn't a frickin' 95 percent chance that we _would_ die if we failed. And it's not like I'm scared of dying. We've all been in missions where you think you're a goner. But I don't know. There's something about dying in the middle of a damn test that bothers me. Like you lost your life for nothing. At least if you die on a mission, you died for your Village, but this…"

"'There's no shame in being afraid of death,'" Hinata repeated. "That's what Kurenai-sensei told me."

"Yeah." But still the boy sat slouched on his stool, still uncomfortable with what he had revealed.

"There's, there's nothing wrong with it you know," Hinata said in a surprisingly assertive voice. "Being chuunin I mean. People we all respect as brave ninja and good people are chuunin—like Iruka-sensei. And even if you decide you're not going to train for jounin now or you decide you're never going to train for it, it doesn't mean you've given up. You're still a shinobi!"

"Yes," Shino agreed. Although his sunglasses hid it well, he was eyeing Hinata curiously. He'd only seen his teammate behave so forcefully during some the most dire moments in missions gone wrong. Apparently, she had found a way to bring that forceful part of her personality to the fore in not just near-death situations but in regular circumstances as well.

"Yeah," Kiba said sounding a little less dispirited, "She told me that too. Even if you don't go past being a combat chuunin, that doesn't mean you can't actually be a higher rank than that in a specialized field. Like that Sakura chick, Kurenai-sensei said that she'd probably never go higher than chuunin and instead spend her time becoming ace at medical jutsu and take over the hospital or something."

"Really?" Hinata asked surprised. She would have to ask Sakura about that when the girl got back from her mission. Hinata suspected, though, that given her goal of getting Sasuke back from the Sound, her friend would further her training in combat. But she could understand Kurenai-sensei's logic. Given normal circumstances—if Sasuke had never defected—Sakura probably would be happy to stop at chuunin and instead focus her energy on advancing herself to the level of her master, Tsunade-sama, as a medic-nin. After all, Sakura had admitted in disappointment that no matter how hard she tried, she just didn't have the chakra capacity to sign a summoning contract and when it came to fighting, although she had improved phenomenally, she probably wouldn't have if she hadn't had the impetus of saving Sasuke pushing her forward.

Well, Hinata didn't have a problem like Sasuke driving her to improve her combat skills, did she? Maybe she could just stop at chuunin too. But wouldn't that be giving up? She'd told Kiba-kun that it wasn't…but Kurenai-sensei had told him that he might never make jounin. But she had told Hinata that she thought the girl could do it. Did that mean that Hinata was actually _better_ than Kiba-kun?! How could that be possible? Hinata had sparred against him and usually, he won. But she hadn't tried any of her new stuff on him, and well, they had always been sparring. She never fought all out against Kiba-kun the way she did with Kurenai-sensei that morning. Did that mean that she'd been sabotaging her own development all along? That if she wasn't treating each spar as seriously as a fight, like she did this morning, she wasn't getting all she should and could get out of it? Hmm, that was something to think about.

She sipped her iced tea as she went back to her initial doubt—should she too stop at chuunin? There was nothing to impel her to strain for jounin like there was for Sakura…except her family. Of course they expected nothing less than jounin from a Hyuuga of the Main house let alone the tentative Clan Heir. But weren't they all used to her being the Clan Disappointment by now? Her father hadn't really even expected her to make chuunin so surely he didn't think she could handle jounin. They didn't expect any better from her, so didn't that mean she could stop instead of pushing herself uphill? But that sounded suspiciously the same as giving up. Her case and Kiba's were different. Kiba-kun might have actually reached his limit. According to Kurenai-sensei, there was still things Hinata could develop her skills in. And besides, Kiba-kun wasn't the one who had said it was his ninja way to never go back on his word. That was her. And if she gave up _when she could become stronger_, well, that would be going back on her word. She had said she was going to change the old weak Hinata. Besides, if she really wanted to change the Hyuuga, she realized, the old weak Hinata wasn't good enough. If—no, _when_—she developed that new uncursed seal, if she wanted to implement it and other changes in the Hyuuga, she would need the clout of position. She _needed_ to have a higher rank because the only thing that meant anything within her Clan was respect and that only came with rank. The word of a jounin was worth more to her Clan than the word of a chuunin no matter how intelligent or how brave or how _right_ the chuunin was; those things didn't matter in their eyes, only the rank did. That meant that Hinata _needed_ to get stronger, that she needed to move up. It was the only way she could ever hope of changing the Hyuuga.

At last Kiba seemed to be returning to himself, because he prodded Shino and said, "Hey, what'd you mean you've got other things to think about too?"

"My future is uncertain. Hasami-san's clan has appealed to my clan for a formalized alliance." And after dropping that little bombshell on his teammates, Shino continued sipping his beer leisurely as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Naturally, Kiba reacted loudly, "What the hell?! You're getting _married_?! To the scorpion chick from Sand?!"

"Thank you for announcing it to the room at large," Shino remarked casually.

Hinata was too shell-shocked to know what to say. At last she managed, "Congratulations." And of course she had all sorts of questions, like whether they loved each other, but they seemed too rude and so she satisfied herself with enquiring, "Do you know where the two of you will live? Will Hisami-san be moving here or will you be moving to Sand?"

"That is the crux of the problem. As both of you know, the kikai insects cannot live outside the Leaf continuously for more than 3 months at a time. While they can handle it for long missions, to do so indefinitely as a marriage would require, would put too much of a strain on the main colony. Hasami-san's scorpions have similar climate issues. Her clan, however, maintains that they would like to develop a scorpion breeding program and raise a species of scorpion that is much more adaptable. Such a program though might take years, even decades to come to fruition. I think in the mean time, if the engagement and marriage go on as planned, we would travel between Sand and Leaf ever three months."

"Well," Hinata said at last, fishing around for something neutral to say. She didn't dislike Hasami-san, the jounin from the Sand—she was part of the rotating teams of ninja exchanged between the Sand and the Leaf after the Sound-Sand invasion of three years ago in an attempt to foster better ties between the Sand and the Leaf; in fact, Hinata had even written a paper on the treaty signed by the two allies that specified the rotating visiting teams—but she hardly knew the girl. Really all she knew was that she was a couple years older than Shino, of medium height with mousy brown hair, and was fascinated by insects. And it was just so disturbing to think that someone she knew well, someone who was her own age was going to be married soon.

Of course, it wasn't all that odd; some of the smaller clans preferred that their members be married by 16 since ninja mortality rates were so high; and Shino was 15. If they married young, there was a greater chance of producing children before anything happened to either of the parents. Hinata couldn't picture being married or having children. In fact, the thought was downright scary. She could already imagine the kind of person her clan would choose; she almost shuddered. Fortunately, that was one traditional practice that the Hyuuga didn't follow. Since the clan was so large and strong, there was no rush to try to preserve it by demanding its members marry young. Hinata decided to be grateful for small blessings. Of course, all this entire thought process had Hinata blushing a brilliant red by the end of it. She knew she must look like a cooked lobster by now. In order to disperse her embarrassment, she tried to change the topic by asking, "So, that was why you don't know if you will train for the jounin exam right away?"

"Indeed, this would disrupt any attempt at consistent training."

"There will always be time afterwards. Once you two settle down, and in the meantime, it's not like your wasting time—you'll still be fighting and training and taking missions and getting better."

Kiba, apparently, wanted the conversation to go in exactly the opposite direction Hinata had been trying to steer it. "So," he said, his voice suggestive and a smirk on his face, "this is all real sudden. Any _reason_ why you're rushing to get married? Is there a little bug baby on the way?"

Hinata looked horrified at her iced tea.

Shino merely took a calm sip of his beer and responded, "I believe at this point it would be customary for me to mock your romantic prospects. But wait, you don't have any."

"Hey! I totally have a love life!"

"Do enlighten us."

"I'm going out with this really cute girl."

"Really, Kiba-kun? Who is she? Is she a kunoichi we know?"

"Her name's Aiko," Kiba looked a little embarrassed again, but continued, "she's a genin."

"Oh? Robbing the cradle are we?" Shino asked raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up! She just started the Academy late! She's only a year younger than us!"

Satisfied with his revenge for Kiba's earlier comment, Shino let the matter drop.

But then, almost uncannily, both of Hinata's teammates who were sitting on either side of her turned to face her and Kiba said, "What about _your_ love life, Hinata?" while Shino nodded in agreement.

Hinata could feel herself turning red from her toes to the roots of her hair, "M-m-m-my l-l-l-l-lovel-l-life?"

Shino and Kiba rarely teased Hinata since their teammate embarrassed so easily, but when they did, it certainly was worth it. While she had never told them about her feelings for Naruto, Shino was keen enough to have observed and drawn his own conclusions from it. Even Kiba, the least perceptive of the three of them, had pieced together Hinata had a secret crush, he just didn't know who.

Hinata saved herself by looking at the clock and exclaiming a little to eagerly, "Oh! I have to get home for dinner!" And here she had thought she would never look forward to one of those horrid family dinners.  
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_To be continued..._


	11. Chapter 11

**NOTE: You might want to reread the fic as I've moved chapters around and changed some stuff so that it makes more chronological sense.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

A/N: I apologize for the long update time. To review some facts, this is post time-skip, after the Gaara kidnapping. At that point, my story diverges significantly from the Naruto timeline. Characters such as Sai and Yamato haven't been introduced yet (I don't know yet if I'm even going to use them). All of Team 10, 8, and Sakura have made chuunin. Naruto's still a genin.

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Meanwhile, somewhere on the fringes of Sound territory, days dragged into weeks as Naruto and Sakura traveled through the civilian villages and towns that bordered Sound. Frustratingly, all their information gathering skills consistently yielded the same baffling and vague facts: Sound never accepted anything below a C-rank mission and lately, had been turning down all missions entirely. Both of them were starting to get frustrated. Days turned to weeks, with only Hinata's letters to break up the monotony of their information-gathering mission. 

"Hey, Sakura-chan," Naruto asked, looking up pensively from the small stand of jewelry Sakura was engrossed in. They had spent the better part of the morning and the afternoon gathering information in this town, and having found nothing new, Sakura decided a window-shopping trip was called for to life up "general team morale," as she put it. In reality she meant that if she had to dwell on their failure anymore she might start pulling out her hair. Unfortunately, this wasn't too good for Naruto's well-being as he felt bored out of his mind. Yet he figured boredom compared to an irate Sakura-chan was the lesser of two evils.

A pensive Naruto was a rare thing, and instantly caught Sakura's attention. "Hm?" she enquired, turning her gaze from the necklace she was examining to Naruto's face.

"Why's Hinata called Sun?" Sakura almost face-faulted at the idiocy of his question. And here she thought it would be something serious, something about their mission.

She let out a small sigh of irritation. "Names, Naruto. It's all in the names. The characters for Hinata mean 'piece of the sun.'"

"Oh." A pause and then, "I told her Moon would be better."

Sakura certainly didn't have a reply for that. This was odd, even by Naruto standards. But maybe it meant he was starting to like Hinata? Was her Lite Matchmaking Scheme working? At last she responded with, "I guess that would go with her eyes more."

"Hey, that's cool! I didn't even think of that. I was just thinking you know, since she's so quiet and I don't know…you know how the moon's pretty but dark and weird and you don't notice it like you notice the sun but it's still always there and—"

"That's nice." Sakura turned her attention back to where it was needed—haggling with the peddler who owned the jewelry stand. She could almost feel the pout that Naruto was directing at the back of her head for cutting him off. Turning around again to face him momentarily, she asked "Hey, shouldn't you do your own shopping? You know, getting souvenirs or something. And I don't mean any more perverted books for Konohamaru!" A sly glint entered Sakura's eyes as she added, "Maybe you should get a present for Hinata. You know, to thank her."

The semi-panicked look on Naruto's face at the thought of it was priceless. "But, but…what do I get her?"

"You know, a regular souvenir. A local specialty that's small, not too expensive, but nice." When the panicked, blank look on Naruto's face persisted, the thought struck Sakura that Naruto had probably never bought a souvenir for anyone his entire life, let alone for a girl.

At this point a maniacal glint entered Sakura's eye. She could drag Naruto shopping. She could have a packhorse, ahem, a helper, to assist her with carrying her purchases. Well, things couldn't get too out of hand as they were still mid-mission and she couldn't buy more than was easily transportable in their packs. There was no need for Naruto to sport that deer-in-the-headlights look he had! Taking hold of Naruto's arm, Sakura dragged her victim down to the bustling downtown center.

All sorts of wicked schemes blossomed in Sakura's mind. Maybe she could make him buy something terribly romantic! Maybe she could get Naruto to buy something for Hinata that would force the girl to change her ninja outfit like Sakura had been nagging her to do for ages now. Sakura could kill two birds with one stone! While the ideas were tempting to dwell on, Sakura knew she wouldn't do it—she would never humiliate either Naruto or Hinata in such a way. Besides, there was always the possibility that Naruto was too stupid to like Hinata and she didn't want to hurt her friend by raising false expectations through a misleading gift.

After Sakura had dragged him around for a couple hours, Naruto found a gift that to him seemed perfect for Hinata. Pointing he asked, "Hey, Sakura-chan, what's this?"

Turning away from her own browsing, Sakura replied "Earrings. Honestly, don't you know even that much?"

"They're cool. They look like her eyes. And hey," he added, turning over the little box to look at the price, "they're kinda cheap. Oh and get this! It's called moonstone! Isn't that perfect? Does that mean we're done? Can we go back to inn now?"

Sakura turned serious attention to Naruto's choice now that it seemed he wouldn't put up with any more shopping. It was perfect actually. She was kind of impressed that he had managed to find a decent gift after his first completely inappropriate suggestions such as dried ramen. It was a set of simple moonstone studs, designed for three piercings in each ear. Nothing too extravagant, just a set of three small spheres of slowly decreasing sizes. The area was famous for its orthoclase mines, which is why the earrings were so cheap, so they worked on the souvenir level since they were a local specialty too. And the stones were beautiful, a milky cloudy white and Naruto was right, they would match Hinata's eyes perfectly.

"Well," Sakura hedged hoping to prolong the shopping expedition, "I'm not even sure if her ears are pierced." Secretly thought, Sakura thought that after getting this gift from Naruto, Hinata would make sure they were. But seeing the impatient and somewhat disappointed look on Naruto's face she added, "Hmmm. I think she has one piercing in each ear, but I think that works. I guess we can call it day." It had been fun while it lasted.  
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Three days later found them camping out again and discussing heatedly what they should do next. For four weeks they had gone through the villages bordering Sound and not discovered anything significant. What information they gathered was sent off in regular weekly reports to the Hokage but they had had no further orders than keeping a low profile, scouting around, and being expressly forbidden from entering Sound territory proper—the Hokage hardly wanted a war on her hands. Sakura was convinced they should head back to Leaf. As the past few weeks had demonstrated, there was no new information to be gathered. She was also afraid that the longer they stayed in the area without appreciable results in terms of information gathering, the greater the chance would become that Naruto would want to storm into Sound and try to simply drag Sasuke back. She was trying to convince him that if they headed back to Leaf, perhaps they could convince the Hokage to send them out with a proper team on an infiltration mission. Naruto was insistent, however, that the Old Hag would not let them go searching for Sasuke again, and this was there chance. If nothing else, they should stick around at least a little longer to see if they could find out anything more. He even tentatively suggested moving their information gathering into the fringes of Sound territory—nothing too obvious, but it wouldn't hurt to find out what was going on within the borders, would it? he argued. 

Sakura wanted to get Sasuke back so badly, she was almost tempted to agree against her better judgment. Fortunately, both of them were spared from making a foolish decision that might result in far-reaching and dire consequences by the arrival of another of Hinata's messenger paper birds. As she snatched the bird out of the air and began reading, Naruto, seeing the distressed look on her face asked immediately "What's wrong? Is Hinata ok? Is something wrong in the Leaf?"

"It just says the Hokage demands we return at once and that she'll explain when we report to the Tower."

"But why? What the hell happened? Did they find out something about Sasuke?"

"I don't know! That's all it says. Here," the frustration in her voice clear as she handed Naruto the small letter. Sakura was right, that was all it said.

_Spring, Summer:_

_Orders from the very top: return at once. Explanations when you report._

_Moon_

The only thing about this brief, cryptic, and troubling letter that made Naruto smile was that Hinata had signed herself as Moon again; she'd started doing that soon after he first suggested it suited her personality better. After such a disconcerting letter, the two of them decided to head for the Leaf at once, even though sun had already set. Both worried something had happened and so agreed that they would travel as rapidly as possible.  
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After five days of strenuous traveling, Sakura and Naruto saw the gates of the Village looming before them and each felt a little relieved to see those massive Village walls standing unharmed and protective. After the Sand-Sound invasion a little under three years ago, the idea of their home destroyed was not too hard to imagine. 

After passing the chuunin on guard duty at the gate, in silent agreement the two of them headed straight for the Hokage Tower. Going home and resting could wait. Information was all that mattered to them right now.

Sakura both hoped and dreaded that the Hokage had gained some intelligence regarding Sasuke, and so pulled between these conflicting emotions, she stood back uncertainly as Naruto—in typical Naruto fashion—pushed through the doors to the Hokage's office. Angrily, the chuunin guards swarmed him, pulling him back.

Hearing the ruckus, Tsunade stepped out, looking unsurprised to see Naruto causing a stir within five minutes of his return. She merely said, "I was waiting for you two to get back, but I didn't expect it would be so soon. You can let him go." The last directed towards her guards, and as Naruto adjusted his manhandled jacket, Tsunade motioned both Naruto and Sakura into her office.

"Quiet, Naruto. Just listen." Tsunade said holding up a hand and hoping to stem the flood of questions that Naruto seemed to be bursting with. "Normally the intelligence I'm going to give you two would not be shared beyond Clan Leaders, Elders, and the Department Heads. I'm only telling you since you're already so deeply embroiled in the whole Sasuke fiasco. With that in mind, realize that this information cannot go further than this room."

Naruto couldn't help it. He burst out, "You found him? He's safe? He's back then?"

Tsunade eyed him sadly. The look of eager hope on his face was as innocent as it had been when she had first met him years ago. She hated having to crush that hope. "I'm afraid not, Naruto. But it's not bad news."

That last sentence raised Sakura's sinking spirits, and impatiently, she thwaped Naruto saying "Just be quiet so we can find out."

Tsunade smiled wryly. "Then in the interests of your impatience, I'll keep this short and to the point. About a week after you left, Yakushi Kabuto infiltrated the Leaf again. Apparently our efforts and strengthening our security haven't been enough. At any rate, I found him in the forbidden section of the medical library."

Sakura had only heard about that from Shizune, she herself wasn't allowed to look at the scrolls housed there. Most of it had been gathered by the Hokage herself when she was still young, before she left the Leaf to gamble and wander. "What do you think he was looking for?"

"No doubt working on Orochimaru's pet project," Tsunade replied.

Seeing the confused look on Naruto's face, Sakura took pity on him and whispered to him, "Immortality jutsu."

Comprehension dawned on Naruto's face. "So what happened? Did you stop him?"

"Yes. I made sure he stayed dead this time." Tsunade said with a surprising amount of venom in her voice. Naruto hadn't realized she hated the Sound-nin that much. But, he supposed, it made sense for a medic-nin to hate someone who used medical jutsu to hurt rather than heal people. Apparently, Tsunade had learned from Kakashi that in his last encounter with Yakushi that the boy had stimulated death and fooled him. She had not wanted to take any more chances with Orochimaru's underlings and after discovering this ability of Kabuto's by reading the backlog of reports from the Third's reign, had tweaked a medical jutsu of hers that could detect even the smallest amount of life force. It was hyper sensitive, and that traitor Kabuto had learned to his regret that he could not fool it.

"Wow, you're pretty cool for an old woman, but how did you do that?"

"Watch your tongue, brat. And I did it with the Life Force Detection jutsu. It's a modified medical technique I've been working on. It's used to find any ninja who might be still alive after a major battle so that they can be treated. I don't know how many of Orochimaru's ninja can pull that death stimulation trick, so I might have as many Leaf ninja learn it as soon as possible. Actually, Sakura, I'll give you a brief lesson on it tomorrow and you make sure that Naruto learns it. Since I doubt I can convince either of you to forget about Sasuke, I can at least make sure you're less likely to die in your poorly considered venture." Tsunade could not help resenting Sasuke, because he, like Orochimaru, endangered her Village. Because in him, she could feel the betrayal of her old teammate all over again. Because in him, she could see all the terrible mistakes of the past coming around and circling her once more.

"But why did you call us back just because Kabuto's dead?" Naruto asked. "That means something's up in Sound. I knew we should have stayed and gathered more information!"

"Ah well, the thing with information gathering, Naruto, is that if you're out in the field, you can only see a piece of the entire picture. It's only the Intelligence Department that sees all the pieces various field agents gather. All you could tell from your observations was that something so big was going on in Sound that they canceled missions outside their Village. But the Intelligence Department, together with Kabuto's elimination, accounts from other agents deeper within Sound territory, and your information about the sudden pull back of Sound ninja, has figured out that Kabuto's death disrupted many of Orochimaru's long term plans. With Kabuto gone, he won't be able to perform the transfer into Sasuke's body as he had planned three years ago. Kabuto was the only one who knew enough about the forbidden medical techniques that requires.

"But Orochimaru's no fool. He had contingency plans for just such a situation. He's transferred into a 'back-up' body that was kept ready for just such an emergency. The body's not perfect and won't last much longer than two years, but it'll give him time to either train or blackmail another medic-nin into performing the transfer into Sasuke's body."

At last Sakura interrupted her mentor, "So Sasuke-kun's safe?"

"For now. We have a two year reprieve in which to figure out our next step."

"Then we should start planning now." Naruto responded with uncharacteristic seriousness. "Hey, Granny, is it true that some Lord or Daimyo is funding Sound. Sakura-chan figured that if they don't take on that many missions, they have to get the money from somewhere."

"Sorry, Naruto, but I can't give you that sort of sensitive information. I've only told you two the bare minimum that would keep you from idiotically rushing into Sound and trying to rescue Sasuke come hell or high water." Seeing the disappointed look on Naruto's face, she added, "Both of you did a good job in this. I'm impressed by how professionally you carried out a mission objective that's not cut-and-dry like so many low level missions are; and you did it without a supervising jounin. Besides, I had a bet going with Kakashi that you wouldn't charge Sound like morons. I think this is the first bet I've won in decades. Naruto, you might just be lucky!"

"I'm not here to break your losing streak, you loser!"

Ah, it was good to see the boy in spirits again. It was good to have him home. "One last item of business for you, Naruto. Sakura, you may leave."

As Sakura walked out of the room, sending a curious look in Naruto's direction, the Hokage continued, "Naruto, I'm assuming you don't want to go on another training trip with Jiraiya to hone your skills?" Seeing Naruto shaking his adamantly, Tsunade continued, "No, I thought not. We'll consider details of the new Sasuke-retrieval mission after a year or so. The attempt itself won't be made until a year and half from now at the earliest. That means you're going to be staying here for the foreseeable future. I think it's time you take the chuunin exam again. I'll set up a new temporary team for you and—"

"Hey, but I'm as good as a chuunin! Why do I have to take that stupid exam again?"

"Because I can't officially promote you if you haven't passed it. I can assign you higher ranked missions if I think you're capable, but if you don't take it, you'll only be an unofficial chuunin and that means you don't get the pay increase, rank, or other benefits."

"Well, I don't care. I'm not taking it without Team 7."

"Don't be pigheaded, Naruto. Sakura's already a chuunin. It's not a betrayal, Naruto. Sakura didn't mind taking the exam with Ino and Chouji." Tsunade's eyes softened slightly, "I understand how much your teammates mean to you. I realize you don't want to leave Sasuke behind. But you have to understand, time moves forward. Isn't that what you taught me when you insisted I come back and become Hokage? Besides," she added "chuunin brings you one step closer to becoming Hokage yourself."

"Doesn't matter. I'll be first genin Hokage if I have to be. I'm not going on another team. I'm not abandoning my friends, and that's my ninja way."

Tsunade saw that there would be no arguing with the stubborn look in his eyes. She sighed. "All right. But if you change your mind, come talk to me. The next exam is in 5 months. At the very least, I want you to think about it."

"Fine, fine."

"Well, that's all then. You're dismissed."

As Naruto turned the handle of the Hokage's office door, he turned back to look at Tsunade and grinned, "It's good to be home, Granny!"  
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_To be continued..._

_Next time: finally, the face-to-face encounter between Naruto and Hinata  
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	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** I apologize for the confusion engendered by my moving chapters around last time. For those of you who might have missed it, you might want to **go back and read chapter 10** which was the update last time. I hope this chapter isn't too much of a disappointment after the build-up.  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.  
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Sakura waited rather impatiently for Naruto right outside the door to the Hokage's office. She ignored the chuunin guards who were sending her somewhat curious and somewhat disapproving glances. She wondered if they disapproved of the dead marsh creature she no doubt smelled and looked like after that grueling fast-paced trip back to Konoha, or if they disapproved of the company she kept; for some reason, people seemed to still dislike Naruto, even though he had stopped with his childish but monumental (Sakura couldn't help musing on the appropriateness of that pun considering what Naruto did to the Hokage Monument when they were in the Academy) pranks. 

She sighed. What was taking so long? She wondered idly what Tsunade-sama had to say to Naruto that was so important and private. But that wasn't why she was lingering. As soon as she saw him exiting, a determined look on his face, she fell into step beside him.

Naruto, surprised that she had been waiting for him at all exclaimed, "Sakura-chan!"

But Sakura tried to shrug off her atypical behavior and schooling her expression to look casual, asked as nonchalantly as possible, "Hey, Naruto, I was just wondering what you're doing tomorrow."

With a baffled look on his face, he answered, "Tomorrow? Why is it something special? It's your birthday, isn't it? Look, I'm really sorry that I didn't remember to send you something while I was on that training trip with the Pervert Hermit, but did you really have to me so hard for it when I got back? I mean it hur—"

The only response this earned was Sakura's frustrated growl. She was too hot, sweaty, and tired to put up with Naruto's nonsensical rambling right now. She merely gritted through teeth clenched in anger, "Just. Tell. Me. What. You. Are. Doing. Tomorrow!" The volume of her voice had risen to a yell by the end of it.

Naruto held up his hands in front of him in a calming gesture, as an added benefit, by placing his hands strategically in front of his face he hoped to lessen the head trauma that would no doubt ensue. "No plans! None! Just cleaning," he babbled as he was prone to when nervous. "My place is probably like a war zone by now. I was just gonna clean my apartment, buy groceries, you know the usual. Nothing special."

Somehow, that was apparently the right thing to say. Sakura visibly clamed down and responded in a much more human tone of voice, "Well, make sure you show up at Ichiraku's at noon."

They had reached the door of the Hokage's Tower by now, and both paused in front of it to continue talking. "Oh, and bring Hinata's present. And if I hear you calling her 'weird' again, I'll whack you…and I don't mean gently," she threatened.

Naruto merely gulped and nodded in response. Sakura-chan was so scary sometimes. And what made it worse, he usually couldn't even tell what set her off.

As the two of them headed in opposite directions, she called out in parting, "Remember: tomorrow, noon, Ichiraku, Hinata's present."

He continued walking away from Sakura, but raised his hand in acknowledgement and yelled back, "Got it." Puzzled didn't even begin to describe Naruto's reaction to Sakura's odd behavior—the way she was asking him for his plans, well, if she'd ever behaved that way when Team 7 was newly formed he would have been in seventh heaven and jumped up and down and declared she was asking him out on a date.

But he knew better now. All those years ago when Sasuke had left the Village with the Sound Four and she had begged Naruto to get him back since her own attempts to persuade their teammate had failed, Naruto had realized that Sakura-chan would never love him. It had made the fight at the Valley of the End that much more painful for him. His best friend valued his friendship only so that he could use it to further his ambition by killing him and the girl he loved loved someone else enough that she would ask for his help for the sake of that love. It had been a painful, eye-opening moment.

Of course, it helped when he came back with a hole through his chest and woke up at the hospital to find that Sakura-chan was waiting for him. But it had also hurt to know that the person she had really been hoping to wait for was Sasuke. If he had missed it, when she had asked him to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound Four, he knew then without a doubt as he looked at her trying to keep the pain and disappointment out of her voice and the smile on her face as she said she was glad to see him back safe. Sakura-chan would never love him.

A part of him died as he watched her sitting beside his hospital bed smiling and trying to make idle chatter while he could see all that anguish in those green eyes he loved. Those same eyes that would never love him back because every shred of feeling in Sakura's being was devoted to Sasuke. And to Sasuke, both that love and Naruto's own friendship were worthless. Or at least worth less than his ambition for revenge.

But then Sakura had pulled her wavering emotions together, looked him in the eyes with a determination he had never seen their in all the time he had known and loved her, and said that next time, they would _both_ get Sasuke back together. No, she never would love him like she loved Sasuke, but in that moment where she smiled at him bravely, he realized that she loved him in her own way. It wasn't the all consuming passion of romantic love and adoration she had for Sasuke, and maybe it was nothing more than the love she felt for all her friends, but it was something. And Naruto had learned growing up that when someone gives you something out of kindness, gives you something freely, you should take it and be happy, because something is always better than nothing and there was far too much nothing in his life.

It broke his heart, of course, to give up his dream of love, to give up his dream of Sakura-chan. He remembered wanting to be in love, wanting a person who was there just for him, because that was what he imagined love was, even when he was just a little kid in the orphanage. And it had hurt to let all of that go. Going away on that training trip with Jiraiya had helped because at least it gave him some physical distance from all his pain, from his failure, both with Sakura-chan and with Sasuke. He decided then that would never let his teammates down again.

But Naruto was not one to dwell on his unhappiness if he didn't have to—besides, all the whining in the world wouldn't do anything, there was no point in angsting over it, that was what pretty-boy prodigies did. And Uzumaki Naruto just didn't work that way. He didn't whine, he _changed_ things. And so, and instead of beating himself up with the past, as he walked back towards his apartment, he thought on Sakura's odd behavior outside the Hokage's office.

Yes, he had looked reality in the face and realized Sakura-chan would never love him, which is why he was sure she wasn't asking him out on a date. Sure they went out to eat as former teammates every now and then, but she had never gone out of her way to arrange such a meeting. And it seemed like Hinata would be there too, since Sakura had told him to bring his little souvenir. He didn't know what make of any of it.

He wanted to see Hinata, but at the same time, he didn't. He began regretting a little all the things he had written without constraint her as if he were merely reciting his private thoughts in his own mind. For all that Naruto was sociable and friendly, he rarely ever shared his past, his emotions, or his private thoughts with other people. After a childhood of being derided, scorned, feared, or mocked, he just wanted them to like him so desperately, he hid all the parts that were vulnerable. Even his teammates didn't know half the stuff that Hinata must know about him now thanks to those stupid letters! What had he been thinking, writing to her so openly?! He had forgotten that he would have to deal with the consequences; that now someone would know his personal feelings and maybe laugh at them. Or spread them around so others could laugh at him too. Well, he could tough it out. He had all these years whenever someone laughed that some snot-nosed kid that had the Kyuubi sealed in him said he was going to be Hokage, hadn't he? But it almost saddened him to think that Moon—no, her name was Hinata, wasn't it?—might treat him that same way. He fingered the packet of earrings in his pockets uncertainly. The girl he had gotten to know through those letters wouldn't do that, would she?

* * *

As tired as Sakura was and as filthy as she felt—she and Naruto had really pushed themselves to get back to Konoha as soon as possible after that last cryptic message demanding their return—she couldn't go home for a nice long soak in the tub just yet. She had one more stop to make before her duties as Matchmaker were done for the day. 

She walked wearily towards the Hyuuga compound, and was almost grateful when she discovered that Hinata wasn't there. She was just too exhausted to really deal with anyone right now, even someone she genuinely enjoyed talking to like Hinata. Sakura mentally shuddered at the thought of encountering someone like Ino while in this state. Anything more than a grunting response really required too much energy at the moment. With a little bit of relief, she wrote out a message asking Hinata to meet her at the Hospital at a quarter to noon tomorrow. Sakura tiredly handed over her note to one of those impassive Hyuuga servants and asked him to give it to Hinata when she returned.

Hmmm, maybe bed before shower although that sounded kind of gross. Sakura's walk back to her home was filled with trying to determine her most pressing need: showering, eating, or sleeping.

* * *

Today was a good day, Konohamaru decided. He didn't think Naruto-niichan would be back from his super-long super-cool mission so quickly, but just as the boy had been ordering his second bowl of ramen for lunch, a grouchy Naruto happened to step into Ichiraku's. 

Naruto's apartment had smelled so gross that he hadn't been able to collapse onto his lumpy mattress yesterday after getting home as he had planned. And his laundry still wasn't all dry yet, so here he was walking around without his signature orange jacket. Only orange pants and a black t-shirt today, just thinking about it made his mood worse. But maybe it wouldn't be a smart idea wearing a jacket on such scorching day anyway. And at least Sakura-chan had told him to go to Ichiraku's and not the awful health food place she'd tortured him with that one time when she was dieting. Small blessings, Naruto decided and stopped frowning as fiercely by the time he made it to the ramen bar where he was promptly greeted by an overenthusiastic Konohamaru.

Within minutes the two of them were as thick as thieves, discussing Naruto's mission and Konohamaru's latest and greatest pranks.

* * *

Hinata was glad that she didn't have any meetings to sit through that morning that would conflict with her lunch with Sakura. She was looking forward to seeing her friend again and filling her in on all she could not discuss through their letters because the information was much too sensitive. As she neared the hospital, Hinata saw Sakura move away from the entrance where she had been leaning against a pillar and start walking towards her. 

"Hinata-chan!" Sakura cried out eagerly, "long time no see!"

"How did your mission turn out?" Hinata asked much more quietly although the genuine smile on her face showed that she too was glad to see her friend again.

"Ah well, I don't know whether to be happy or not with the outcome…and a lot of it is confidential stuff so I can't tell you in detail. Besides, that's too serious a conversation—let's save it for another time!"

In an attempt at making light cheerful conversation as the two walked to Ichiraku's for lunch, Hinata mentioned that she really would give into Sakura's desire and redesign her outfit.

"You will?! Finally! So all my hard work trying to persuade you paid off!"

"Actually, it was Neji-niisan…" Hinata trailed off at the incredulous look on Sakura's face.

"Wait, Hyuuga Neji, ANBU prodigy, face like an ice cube, _that_ Hyuuga Neji told you to redesign your outfit? Somehow, I didn't think that's the kind of advice he gave you during those early-morning spars you mentioned." A thoughtful look came over Sakura's face as she continued, "Hmm, giving fashion advice, pretty face, long beautiful hair, indifference to girls…does that mean he's…"

"Um, Sakura-chan I think you're putting two and two together and getting five. Anyway, it's to help build up my chakra really. I need to design clothes that are more challenging to hold together with Paper. It doesn't really matter how it looks."

"Doesn't matter how it looks!" Sakura repeated incensed. "Ino would have your head for that if she ever heard it. Actually, that sounds like a good idea. After lunch, we'll stop by her place and see if she's free. As much as I hate to admit it, she'll probably think of something much more stylish than me."

Their conversation continued in a similar vein as they walked, but inside, Sakura was doing a victory dance. This was going to be the first real test of her Lite Matchmaking: after implementing Plan Penpal and Operation Souvenir she was finally moving onto her Almost Lunch Date Tactic by brining Naruto and Hinata together face-to-face. It wouldn't be a real date since she'd be there to, but she knew someone would have to run interference to prevent Naruto from making a complete mess of things and Hinata from withdrawing into embarrassed silence. But the extra effort she had to expend yesterday to pull it all off was going to be worth it! They would make such a cute couple!

A small twinge of guilt bothered Sakura though. Naruto was dense, but shouldn't she at least tell Hinata she was plotting about her? Shouldn't she at least have warned her friend that she had set Naruto to meet up with them? But if Hinata knew what she was doing, for all Sakura knew, the quiet girl might call it all off and say she wasn't going. And really, the scheme was harmless, wasn't it? Besides, those two would never get together without some help. Naruto was too thick to even realize Hinata liked him and she was too shy to do more than blush. And besides, Sakura rationalized, she wouldn't meddle too much. The guilt dissipated.

As they approached the ramen stand, they could already make out Naruto's loud voice. As they came closer, they could even make out the words.

"So do you know why Iruka-sensei let you off the hook?"

"Yeah!" an eager voice responded. After a little while, Sakura identified it as Konohamru's. "I call it the Pretty Girl Alibi Strategy! It totally distracted Iruka-sensei from killing me. An' I think I can use it again."

"Pretty Girl Alibi Strategy?" Naruto's confused voice repeated.

"Yeah, there was this beautiful girl...I don't know her name. Hyuuga something and she said she was writing letters to you and she just smiled at Iruka-sensei and said I was innocent and he believed her!"

"Hyuuga girl? Do you mean Hinata?"

"Hey, yeah I think that was it! She's beautiful and that's why it worked."

"Nah," Naruto shrugged off with the nonchalance of an experienced prankster. "It has nothing to do with her being pretty."

"You don't think she's pretty, Naruto-niichan?! How can you say that!" Sakura was surprised to hear just how offended Konohamaru sounded at the idea. The two girls were right outside the restaurant now, but Sakura placed a restraining hand on Hinata's arm to keep her from entering. Eavesdropping could be very informative sometimes.

Naruto's voice sounded sheepish as he replied, "Actually, I kinda sorta don't know…I mean I haven't seen her in like 3 years and I don't remember!" He sounded downright defensive by the end. But his voice gained confidence as he bragged, "But that doesn't matter. If you want to be an awesome ninja like me, you need to be able to read a situation right. Iruka-sensei didn't let you off the hook 'cause she looked pretty. He's not _that_ much a pervert—Hinata was his old student! You have to analyze the situation better! She got you off the hook because she looks innocent and trustworthy."

"How do you know that?" Konohamaru retorted, sounding extremely petulant at this point. "You don't even remember what she looks and like! And she's beautiful!"

"Yeah, but this is the kind of thing you don't forget. I mean you say Hyuuga Hinata and I bet anyone who knows her thinks 'ah innocent' and I'm telling you that's why it worked!"

Hinata had been blushing through most of this exchange but at this point, she had apparently had enough because she shook of Sakura's hand and stepped forward determinedly. Sakura sighed in resignation. She had been hoping to hear more—and shouldn't Hinata want to know what her crush thought of her? But her friend did tend to have more delicate sensibilities than she did. _Knowing Hinata_, Sakura thought, _she probably feels guilty listening in and definitely mortified to hear herself talked about. Even her ears are red!_

Taking pity on her friend at last, Sakura barged in front of Hinata and cleared her throat menacingly behind Naruto's seated figure. As he turned around, she growled threateningly, "You'd better not be teaching him any more of your dumb tricks, Naruto!" while gesturing wildly at Konohamru who was seated at the same table.

Konohamaru didn't even really register the pink-haired harpy that was chewing out Naruto-niichan, because just then his angel graced the humble walls of Ichiraku's and transformed the insignificant ramen place into heaven. Today wasn't just a good day, Konohamaru decided, it was the best day in the entire history of the universe. The world seemed to fade and the only thing left was his angel's beautiful blushing face.

* * *

Naruto was good at diversionary tactics and it looked like he need one now considering the way Sakura-chan was eyeing Konohomaru, almost as if she could _see_ the delinquency she claimed Naruto was rubbing off on the boy. 

So, while the girls were putting in their orders for ramen, with a foxy grin on his face hiding the nervousness he felt, Naruto turned to Hinata and said, "Hey, Moon, just the person I wanted to see!"

Hinata squeaked in mingled surprise and embarrassment. But as a diversionary tactic, Naruto's greeting was not quite the success he had hoped it would be because Konohamaru, turning to the two of them drew Sakura's attention as well, when exclaimed, "Moon? Is that some kind of nickname?"

Naruto smiled genuinely that time, a much softer smile than any of his array of grins, and answered, "Just between us."

Konohamaru, now entirely incensed turned to Hinata with an accusatory expression in his eyes, "Hey, I thought you said he _wasn't_ your boyfriend!"

Hinata, whose mental capacities were already under much too much strain what with first overhearing Naruto-kun's and Konohamaru's conversation, facing Naruto-kun, and now this, gave the intelligent response of incoherent sputtering.

Sakura was starting to enjoy the show, but she decided to take further pity on her friend by getting Konohamaru's attention by pretending anger and yelling at the boy, "Hey, I'm not done with you yet!" And so began her strongly worded lecture on the bad influences of Naruto. Sakura was a little upset since having to yell at Konohamaru and keep him distracted severely limited her ability to overhear and observe Naruto and Hinata's interaction, but sacrifices had to be made in the name of friendship.

Meanwhile, Naruto had asked Hianta to sit down and then began fishing in his pockets for something while making awkward attempts at conversation. "It's a little weird, you know, to be talking to you in person after the letters and all! I'm so used to writing to Moon it's weird sitting next to Hinata."

Hinata, who couldn't bring herself to look up from the ramen counter where she was examining minutely the gently steaming bowl of miso ramen before her, nodded.

Finally, his search over, Naruto pulled out the packet of earrings from his pocket and thrust it towards the girl next to him, "Here. I got you something, to thank you, you know for the letters."

That certainly got Hinata to look up. She had never thought Naruto-kun liked getting her letters so much that he'd thank her with a present! "I-I-I….th-thank you, N-Naruto-kun…" was all she managed to get out.

Fortunately, Naruto either didn't notice or at least pretended not to notice her embarrassment and prattled on, "It's moonstone, you know, from one of the places we went on the mission. I don't really know how earrings work or anything but Sakura-chan said that you know how to use them. Anyway, I thought it would be cool 'cause you know, you're Moon and it looks like your eyes. And well, I thought it'd suit you since you really are like the moon, you know, dark and…and…" there was a long pause, a look of concentration and then of triumph as Naruto resumed with, "mysterious! Yeah, mysterious!" There, he hadn't called Hinata "weird" and avoided Sakura-chan's wrath but still managed to say what he wanted to. "So yeah, I thought it suited you and hope you like it. Huh, well that all made a lot more sense in my head," he concluded.

Hinata was more touched than she could ever hope to express. Naruto-kun had bought a present for her, and not just anything, but something he had spent so much time thinking about. The very idea that he might take the time and effort to think about someone like her made her feel like she was glowing inside. For the first time in the nearly 10 years she had loved Naruto-kun, she actually felt like she was a person in his eyes. She wasn't invisible anymore in the eyes of the boy she had endlessly admired. After years of her watching him endlessly, for the first time, it felt like he was finally looking at her. It had to be a dream. But it was a nice dream, she decided, and she didn't want to ruin it by waking up so she would just go along with it.

She clutched the small box the earrings were in in her hands and with shaking fingers opened it. Lovely and simple, three small cloudy white spherical studs for each ear lobe. As of now she only had one piercing in each ear, but after getting this present from Naruto-kun (a present from Naruto-kun? yes, this definitely had to be dream), she would get the additional two piercings per ear necessary. She wished desperately that she had something for him.

Entirely unaware that Hinata was considering that the entire conversation must be just a figment of her imagination, Naruto started to worry a little as she sat staring at the tiny box for so long. After all, this was the first time really that he was giving someone a present…a souvenir like Sakura-chan had called it. Maybe he'd gotten it all wrong. "You don't like it?"

Hinata wouldn't want to ever hurt Naruto-kun's feelings, even in a dream. She was so anxious that he might think she didn't like the present he had apparently put so much thought into, that the she didn't even have the time to stutter nervously as she rushed to reassure him by answering, "Oh no, Naruto-kun! The earrings are beautiful. I'll wear them every day. It's just…I didn't think you'd get me something, and I don't have anything to give you."

Naruto smiled in relief and in his easy manner answered, "Oh that's no big deal. Your letters were the best present I've ever gotten." He didn't mention, of course, that he hadn't ever gotten any presents before. That would just make him sound like a pathetic loser.

Ok, that confirmed it. This had to be a dream, there was no way the real Naruto-kun would think her letters were so important. She was just shy, boring Hinata, and he had probably only answered her letters to be nice. The thought she wasn't facing the real Naruto-kun but a dream Naruto-kun made talking to him much easier. She didn't have to worry, or stutter in embarrassment, or be shy, or blush to the roots of her hair because none of this was real.

So with an easy assurance that she would never have been able to manage had she realized she was actually talking to the real Naruto and that this was not in fact all a dream, Hinata said, "It's good to see you back, Naruto-kun. I hope you didn't have too hard a time cleaning your apartment like you thought you would."

"Oh, it was awful! I could smell it out the door. Last time I go on a mission without clearing the fridge!" Naruto felt much more at ease now that they had something like a real conversation going. He was still having a hard time assimilating Hinata and Moon, but to hear Hinata talking about things the way Moon would have made it all a lot easier. "And laundry was another disaster. Somehow I ended up shrinking half my things! And the only jacket I've got left that's the right size is still wet."

"I think you might be better off without it." Hinata couldn't see how the lack of his jacket might be a bad thing. In fact, in the black t-shirt he was wearing, she could see more him and was certainly a good thing. It wasn't a muscle shirt or anything, but more tight-fitting than his baggy jacket. And Naruto-kun was much taller now than they were in the Academy, and the combination of his height with his lean but well-built form, blonde hair, beautiful eyes, and handsome face took her breath away. Even if this was all a dream, a thought like that made her blush.

Naruto couldn't imagine why she was blushing. Oh, but maybe she was flushed from the heat? The air-conditioner in Ichiraku's never really helped all that much. "Yeah, you might be right. It might make more sense not to wear a jacket in the summer. I'd forgotten how hot it gets in Konoha at this time of year. When I was training with the Pervert Hermit, we'd usually spend the worst months in Snow Country."

As they continued talking, Hinata began to wonder at this dream which seemed to be going on for so longer than any dream she could remember having. And it was all so detailed too, the conversation she was having with Naruto-kun, the diatribe that Sakura-chan was still giving Konohamaru. Hinata began to have a horrible suspicion that it was not all a dream after all! She couldn't believe she might have actually told Naruto-kun she liked seeing him without his jacket! She felt she might start hyperventilating any second now. As she mentally reviewed their conversation, she felt a little better since she hadn't said it all outright. And she had actually managed to talk to Naruto-kun! She was talking to him in the same way that she would be writing a letter to him and that mental image helped. She didn't want to go back to being that pathetic girl who could only faint and blush and stutter and never actually speak her mind in front of him. This was another step in changing that old Hinata, wasn't it? Having regained a modicum of calm, Hinata took a deep breath and tried to pretend that she wasn't quaking with fear and nervousness inside.

"Hey, Hinata, are you ok? You look real pale. Are you feeling sick?" Naruto asked, a concerned hand resting on her shoulder.

"Ah, um, no N-Naruto-kun. I'm I'm ok."

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, Hinata was saved from having to formulate a more complex sentence by the angry voice of Konohamaru. Throughout Sakura's monologue, he'd been watching Naruto-niichan and his angel sitting and talking. It looked like Naruto-niichan had given her something but from where he was sitting, Konohamaru couldn't make it out and they seemed to getting along awfully well together. Then he saw Naruto-niichan holding her and that was the last straw! It didn't matter if it was just a hand on her shoulder. An outraged Konohamaru yelled in tone of mingled betrayal, disappointment, and anger, "You _are_ his girlfriend!"

Sakura had covertly been watching Naruto and Hinata as well, but because of her finer ninja skills, she had been able to make out most of their conversation and couldn't even begin to understand what had set Konohamaru off. She had been mentally congratulating Hinata on managing a conversation with Naruto without passing out or even stumbling over her words and this stupid boy had to go and ruin it all. As she looked at the utter devastation on Konohamaru's face, a lightbulb went on in Sakura's head. The boy liked Hinata. Oh, this was too good, and she might even be able to manipulate this for the interests of Lite Matchmaking. Maybe she could use this situation to push Naruto into considering Hinata in a more…romantic light. And if nothing else, at least she'd get a good laugh out of it. Besides, after all her efforts to make it happen, the stupid boy had already messed up the delicate conversation that had developed between Naruto and Hinata and she was going to make him pay for it. _A little punishment is a good thing_, Sakura thought angrily, _it kept stupid people from doing stupid things._

Sakura exaggerated looking between Hinata and Naruto and then at Konohamaru. In an overly sugary voice, she remarked in tones of surprise, "Oh, so you have a crush on Hinata just like Naruto does?"

That had all three of them looking at Sakura with a variety of expressions on their faces from the deer-in-the-headlights look on Hinata's face to the utter confusion on Naruto's.

In a perplexed voice, Naruto asked Sakura, "I have a crush on her?"

Sakura felt like laughing. Really, Naruto was so cute when he was stupid. What was expecting, confirmation about his own feelings from her? But any response she might have made was overshadowed by Konohamaru who had by this point gathered himself together again.

He rushed over to Naruto, pointing his finger at him in a grand gesture and yelled, "You can't have her! I saw her first, she's mine!"

Well, Sakura thought, sitting back complacently and crossing her arms, this wasn't quite the outcome she'd expected, but it would be interesting to see it play out.

No one could have expected what happened next: Hyuuga Hinata lost her temper. "I don't belong to anyone, except myself," she began a tightly controlled but thoroughly pissed off tone. "You should reconsider many of your attitudes towards women, Konohamaru-kun. I'm certainly not a possession and neither is any other girl. I shouldn't have let it slide earlier, but your remarks the other day that you 'wouldn't be outdone by a girl' were completely out of line! There are plenty of kunoichi out there who _are_ better than you and it's about time you started respecting them!"

Both Naruto and Sakura looked on stunned. Konohamaru looked chastened and mumbled an apology to the floor, but the remorseful look on his face only remained their briefly. Once again he struck a grandiose pose, cried out, "Naruto-niichan! You're my rival now, in love and in becoming Hokage!" and made an equally grandiose exit.

The silence that followed last a good five minutes, before Naruto, the first to recover from the shock of it all wondered aloud, "I wonder if Konohamaru's been spending time with fuzzy-brows while I was gone."

Sakura had to agree that that declaration and those hand gestures smacked of the School of Gai. All things considered, Naruto was probably a better influence than Lee. She came out of her musings to see Hinata blushing like a tomato and trying to stutter out apologies. Well, it would be hopeless to try to continue now. And besides, her Lite Matchmaking had accomplished quite a lot for a day. Deciding that retreat was the better part of valor in this situation, Sakura turned to Naruto said, "We have to meet Ino after lunch. See you later, Naruto."

Then, grabbing the still blushing and stammering Hinata's arm, she dragged the girl out of there while the boy sat at his stool, scratching his head and trying to figure out just what the hell had happened.  
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_To be continued..._


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: If you want to see the fanart by Xenophobia that I based Hinata's new outfit on, google image search "Hinata post time skip" it should be the first image that comes up. Or go to this link: **www (dot) animefamily (dot) com (slash) Graphics (slash) Xeno1 (dot) htm**. Of course, with the appropriate punctuation in place and without the spaces. Scroll down to the Hinata section.

I don't think I quite like this chapter. It seems to be all over the place. Ah well. Please do take the time to **review and let me know what you think**.

Also, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers **Velt **and **Jacques Rico **to whom I couldn't send review responses.

_**Jacques Rico**: Thank you for your well-thought out feedback. I think every writer must look forward to such a thoroughly considered review. I was getting bored with writing this story, but your comments, which proved that somebody is reading this story for the things I wanted them to read it for, has convinced me to keep plugging along. Your input has given me a lot of new ideas, so really, thank you! This fic is going to be something of a monster in length, so although I have 12 chapters of only character build up so far, the war is definitely brewing. I have only thrown minimal hints of it in the story so far because I wanted my portrayal of how a war happens to be much more realistic than dramatic. Everyone knows there's tension with Sound, but except for the political leaders, no one can really see that something as devastating as a war might actually happen. I might have overplayed my hand, I suppose. I've attempted to rectify that in this chapter. As for diplomat-nin, it does sound a little silly, but I figure if "medic-nin" is accepted in canon to indicate a specialization, why not diplomat-nin? _

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

Brief Recap: It's been about 3 years since Sasuke's defection. All the Rookie 9 are chuunin except for Naruto. Team Gai are jounin. Kabuto is dead. Orochimaru has moved to a temporary body and won't be able to posses Sasuke for another two years.  
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* * *

Hinata looked down at herself and felt yet another pang of doubt about the whole endeavor. How had she let Sakura talk her into this? Well, there wasn't much talking involved, was there? At least not on her part or Sakura's. She barely had time to reflect on the lunch she'd had with Naruto-kun before Sakura had dragged her to Ino's house.

* * *

Meeting Yamanaka Ino in her own domain had been like rushing headlong into a whirlwind. Sakura had barely gotten the words "new outfit" out of her mouth before Ino, whom Hinata only knew about through the Academy but hadn't ever even spoken to before, rushed the two girls into her bedroom, and pulled open the doors of the largest closet Hinata had ever seen. Hanging was the largest array of clothes Hinata had ever seen in any one place other than in a department store—kimonos, swimming suits, fishnets, summer dresses, pants, anything and everything was arranged neatly on an endless series of hangers and there were even some mannequins modeling particularly stylish combinations. Above the clothes, shelves seemed to stretch into the ceiling and held all sorts of accessories including shoes, handbags, hats, and scarves. There seemed to be full-length mirrors everywhere and Hinata thought she saw even a three-way mirror but she was much too overwhelmed to be certain. 

Sakura and Ino had chattered on as if all this sartorial splendor was nothing out of the norm while Hinata felt she had been standing around in open-jawed surprised like an idiot for minutes on end.

She had come out of her daze to hear Sakura say, "Ah, it won't require any of this. Hinata has her…own method of creating clothes. Really what we need is for you design something appropriate."

"Well, I guess you're smart enough to realize your own limitations, forehead girl. Anyone who things pink goes with pink hair shouldn't be giving the young and impressionable fashion advice."

"Shut _up_ Ino-pig! Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and actually open that kunochi clothes line you keep bragging you're designing? Maybe because all you do is destroy your parents' paychecks, clear out all the clothing stores, and call yourself a fashion designer!"

"Hey, you take that back you fashion-disaster! You're just jealous that your large forehead can't even think of half these styles," Ino had yelled back while gesturing wildly towards one of the mannequins she had set up. "I've designed every one of these outfits and you know it! I've even sewn most of these."

This had gone on for several more minutes and even by the time it looked like the girls would start pulling out hair—each other's and not their own—Hinata couldn't tell if it was friendly banter or a catfight. So she had done what she was best at: she had stood unobtrusively while waiting for the storm to blow over. Unfortunately, she had picked the wrong spot to retreat to. Thinking to get out of the line of sight of the two outraged kunoichi, Hinata had unwittingly placed herself in the best position to be caught by as many of the mirrors at once.

Ino had found herself distracted from her fight with Sakura by the most appalling sight she had ever seen. "What are you _wearing_?!" screeched the entirely horror-struck kunoichi while staring at Hinata's reflection. She'd spun around so quickly her blonde ponytail whirled behind her as she turned to direct her tirade directly at Hinata. "It's hideous! That jacket makes you look like a sack of potatoes! Take that boxy monstrosity off this minute! That whole outfit makes you look like a marshmallow stuck on two toothpicks!"

Hinata had mentally curled up in on herself. She knew she was far from pretty but she hadn't thought herself quite so unattractive. But that only stood to reason, she supposed. Ino's admirers could line the streets she was sure, and even Sakura had Naruto-kun chasing her since their Academy days and then that Rock Lee falling head over heels in love with her too. Hinata was probably the only kunoichi whom no one had ever, or would ever think to fall in love with. Appearance was one of the few things the Hyuuga Clan didn't really concern it self with; as long as one dressed with and displayed dignity, it didn't matter if you were attractive or not. So while her family had destroyed her self-esteem about everything else, Hinata had never even considered her looks. She had just thought herself plain and now hearing Ino, she began to wonder if she had underestimated it all—maybe she wasn't just homely but downright ugly.

Yamanaka Ino was a woman of action. If that Hyuuga girl was just going to stand there, Ino was going to take matters into her own hands.

Hinata, who had been initially dumbstruck by Ino's verbal attack on her now found herself dumbstruck by the physical assault as she felt Ino's hands at her throat. It finally snapped her to her senses and she cried, "What are you _doing_?"

Ino's calm reply, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, unnerved Hinata even more. "Taking off that ugly jacket if you're not going to." The blonde kunoichi finished unzipping the offending article of clothing and began tugging it off Hinata.

Sakura stood to the side feeling a little guilty as if she had led an unwitting lamb to slaughter. At last she interjected, "You know, Ino-pig, I didn't bring her hear so you could strip her!"

"That big forehead of yours doesn't understand a thing does it? There is no way I can tell what the girl looks like with all these baggy…_rags_ covering her. I need to get measurements and a sense of her body shape."

Seeing that there was no stopping the assault, Hinata thought she could at least stem some of the embarrassment and so in a subdued voice she said, "I can undress myself." Hinata supposed she should be grateful to Ino for actually letting her know that she was ugly—wasn't it better to know these kind of things than to live on in ignorance? she was even a little upset at Sakura for not mentioning it to her earlier, after all, weren't they friends and wasn't this the type of things friends told each other?—but that didn't stop it from hurting.

"Ok, then, take it all off. Just leave your underwear."

Once again, Hinata was grateful for the spandex shorts and sports bra she had on underneath. Somehow, that didn't leave her feeling as naked as being in a regular bra and underwear would.

Ino prowled her like a tiger eyeing its prey. She was twirling the end of a tape-measure in her hands but as of yet hadn't approached to take any measurements. "Just as I suspected," she said at last in a tone of smug satisfaction. "You were hiding a killer body under all that." Her voice lowered a bit and it was almost as if she muttering to herself at this point, "Nice hips and ass—round and firm, not like that awful flat washboard look some girls have. Average waist, but it looks like with your bone structure it can't be much smaller anyway. And good sized boobs—we can't all have Hokage-sama's luck in that, not that we'd _want_ her luck in anything else. As for legs…hmm, since you're on the short side, legs could do with some enhancement." The blonde girl looked up from Hinata's body and met her eyes, a wide smile already on her face, "This is going to be fun!"

Sakura, feeling her role as moderator was being called on again interjected, "Before you get too carried away, maybe should ask Hinata what _she_ wants, hmmm?"

"Right, so color preferences, cut, anything like that?" Ino inquired in a professional tone of voice.

Hinata once again found her voice. After all, this was why she was here, wasn't she? To improve her chakra stamina and control. "Well, y-you see these aren't real clothes at all," she began, lifting up a sleeve of her discarded jacket and starting to unravel the chakra holding the Paper together so that a handful of square sheets came off. "It's a form of…training for chakra endurance with a new type of ninjutsu I'm learning. And I need something more challenging than what I have right now. So what I need is an outfit that incorporates elements that are hardest for me to hold together with chakra. Clothes that are closely molded to my body, for example, require much more chakra than something a little looser because for tighter clothes I need extra chakra to define the shape. But also, if something is _really_ loose and flowing, that requires a lot of chakra too since there's more surface area and volume to cover."

Ino looked intrigued and eyed Hinata's discarded clothes with something more than contempt now, "Huh. Long flowy is usually a problem for kunoichi you know. No one wants clothes that'll get in the way during a critical moment in a battle."

"Oh, that's not a problem for me. If it gets in the way, I can just dissolve it. Besides if there's more material available, that means I have more Paper ready to use in fight."

Hearing this, Ino's eyes lit up. "It's going to be so exciting to design something outside the usual restrictions on kunoichi clothes! I can't wait to get started! So, what about colors and stuff?"

Hinata had demurred since fashion had been the least of her concerns in this whole endeavor. And besides, if she was ugly, no color in the world could make up for it anyway. Hinata supposed she still hadn't gotten over the shock of realizing she was really unattractive. She knew she shouldn't care even if she was because looking good didn't really make a difference in a ninja's performance. And wasn't that all that mattered? That she was a skilled kunoichi who stuck to her ninja way? But no matter how much she told herself that, she couldn't help wishing that she was after all a little bit pretty.

Meanwhile, Ino continued with her questioning, "And you're going to keep the long hair down?"

Confused, since she had come to consult about clothes not hairstyles, Hinata asked, "Does that really matter?"

Somehow, the question set Ino off again and she raged, "For the look as a whole, of course it matters!"

"Oh, um I was thinking of cutting it short again, actually." As soon as Naruto-kun had given her those earrings, Hinata had thought she would get a haircut to highlight the earrings. They wouldn't be really noticeable behind her long thick hair. No one would know except for her how much those earrings meant and how special they were to her, but she did want the whole world to see them anyway.

Apparently Ino was a stickler for details, because the next thing she demanded was "How short?"

"N-not as short as before I think. Maybe chin length?"

"Well, I want to be there when that happens. I'd hate it if you chose a hairstyle that just destroyed the outfit I'm going to create."

A far away look entered Ino's eyes as she said that and again she began muttering to herself, "Hmmm, a form fitting top and a long flowy skirt, maybe…in lavender? no, that doesn't seem quite right…"

Sakura asserted her presence once more by turning to Hinata and saying a deliberately loud whisper, "I think it's time for us to go now. Ino-pig's going to snort and oink to herself for several hours."

Of course that snapped Ino out of her reverie. "Shut _up_, forehead! Can't you tell I'm thinking? The two of you come back in a couple of days. I'll have some sketches by then."

And then Hinata and Sakura were unceremoniously pushed out of Ino's large closet and then her room and then somehow they found themselves out on the street with the Yamanaka door shut firmly in their faces.

"Well," Sakura said at last. "Meeting Ino is always something of a traumatic experience."

Hinata nodded in mute agreement.

"I think we need to go out for ice-cream to recover from it."

"Don't your need to get back to the hospital, Sakura? I'm sorry to have already taken up so much of your time."

"Nah, it's no big deal. Shizune-san gave me the rest of the day off since I just came back from a long mission. So let's go find that ice-cream. After all, there's nothing like eating a vanilla cone on a hot summer day."

The two girls had found a quaint little ice-cream parlor and sat talking on a empty bench outside. The chatted as they watched people walking by on the street and caught up on what had happened while Sakura had been away. Sakura told Hinata as much as she could about her mission and how she was both relieved and disappointed that the Sasuke-kun retrieval mission was delayed for nearly two more years. Of course that would give her even more time to get better but it also meant that she wouldn't see Sasuke-kun again for that much longer. And some part of her worried that the longer he stayed away from the village, the more he would be turning into someone who she wouldn't be able to recognize. Of course he had already turned into someone she couldn't really recognize when he had abandoned the Leaf in the first place.

Hinata was finally able to tell her friend about her promotion within the Diplomacy Corps and the results of her evaluation spar with Kurenai-sensei. For all that Hinata liked and trusted Sakura as a friend, however, Hinata didn't want to mention her new project regarding the cursed seal to the other girl. It was all still on such shaky ground, the superstitious part of Hinata felt that if she voiced her ideas, they might just fall apart.

Instead, she talked about how she was still conflicted about ever being good enough to take the jounin exam, but her discussion with Shino and Kiba had taught her that it was cowardly and a violation of her ninja way if she turned away from the challenge without giving it serious thought. When she asked Sakura if the pink-haired girl was thinking about taking the jounin exam as well, Sakura confirmed Kurenai-sensei's opinion that she most likely wouldn't have even considered it if it weren't for Sasuke-kun. After all, she would need to be a strong kunoichi to be able to help get him back. But there was still so much she had to learn under Tsunade-sama in terms of medical ninjutsu too. She could learn fighting anytime, couldn't she, but this might be her only chance to train under the best medic-nin in the entire ninja world. So perhaps Sakura wouldn't worry about the jounin exam just yet.

Sakura noticed that all of Hinata's conversation focused on her ninja goals, in short, her professional life and not at all on her personal life. And so as the two of them sat there, under the shade cast by the awning of the ice-cream parlor, their ice-cream long since finished, Sakura couldn't help bringing it up.

"You know, Hinata, why didn't you ever tell me you liked Naruto? I mean you kind of did that first time we met, but then you never brought it up again…"

Hinata looked at her friend in surprise. She sat looking up at the clouds lazily moving about the sky, and finally answered, "It didn't seem to matter. My feelings, I mean. They just don't seem to matter that much."

"How can you say that?! Feelings always matter! They make you who you are determine what you do! I'm always going on about Sasuke-kun and bringing him back because it's definitely the most important thing in my life!"

"Yes, but…when I tried to chase after him and become a medic-nin so that he might notice me, that was a disaster. I can't become someone he or even I would respect if I'm only trying to change myself into someone he will notice. No, I want to change myself into someone who can make a difference, whether she's noticed or not." Hinata's voice gained in assurance with that last sentence, as if she were repeating a vow she had made to herself.

"That doesn't mean that you ignore your feelings all together and bury them somewhere no one will ever notice! You don't have to be so single-minded about it, you know. Trying to get him to notice you isn't the same as chasing after him and losing who you are in the process!"

"You don't understand, Sakura-chan." Hinata replied smiling gently. "I never even imagined that he might consider me a friend. And I'm more than happy enough with just that."

"Well I'm not. Naruto could use someone like you to give him some common sense and stability. And you could use someone like him to give more confidence and liveliness. And I'm warning you now, if you're not going to do anything about it, I'm going to do all I can to make it happen."

Of course that brought on a variety of emotions in Hinata. Surprise took the largest portion, but there was even a bit of gratitude that her friend was so concerned about her, worry about what Sakura had in mind, confusion about why Sakura was even concerned, and even the slightest touch of resentment that Sakura would meddle in her life like that. But Sakura had such a determined look on her face, Hinata knew that nothing would persuade her otherwise. It would be futile and also indelicate to argue that considering Naruto-kun had once been entirely infatuated with Sakura someone like Hinata, who was nothing more than a pale ghost compared to Sakura's beauty and temperament, just couldn't be his type. So she just settled with saying, "None of it matters anyway, Sakura-chan, because he's in love with you."

Sakura was relieved to hear that that was the source of Hinata's hesitancy. "Oh is that all? You know, I never thought it would happen the way he used to go on and on when we were genin, but I think he's over me. Ever since he came back from his training trip, I don't know, but it's been different. So you can't have any more excuses."

Hinata had had nothing to say to that. She couldn't tell if her friend was trying to comfort her or was genuinely convinced that Naruto-kun didn't love his teammate any more. In her heart, Hinata couldn't help wishing it were true. The hope was too painful to bear though, and so Hinata had told Sakura that she really had better get back to Training Areas and practice.

* * *

And now here Hinata was again, three days later as Ino had promised, back in the closet large enough to be its own room holding the sketches the fashionista had prepared and trying to reproduce them on herself via Paper Using as both Ino and Sakura watched. 

Ino really was amazing to be able to come up with something like this in just a handful of days. Looking down at the sketches, Hinata was stunned by how elegant the outfit looked. Ino had even worked in Hinata's habit of wearing her forehead protector around her neck into the design. The forehead protector looked like a natural extension of the dress, like a high almost mandarin collar. From the forehead-protector-now-turned-collar extended a pure white dress that was very form-fitting around the torso and lined with elegant frog-clasps running down both sides of the body and ending just above her hips; the top seemed a little too form-fitting to Hinata's tastes, but that was just what she needed to improve chakra endurance, wasn't it? The fabric was then interrupted by hip-guards made of a light metal and done in a light purple on either side of her body while the white fabric of the dress billowed out in loose folds in the front and the back. The long slits on either side of the skirt made by the hip-guards showed off a little of the spandex shorts and accented her legs. The slits on the sides of the skirt also allowed easy access to the deck of Paper Hinata kept strapped to her thigh and white gloves with metal guards over the back of the hand finished off the outfit. Ino had even sketched in a hairstyle to go with the outfit: straight cut bangs as Hinata had now, but chin-length hair done in a series of intricate layers in the back with two shoulder-length locks on each side of her face. Hinata liked the hairstyle quite a bit since it seemed to highlight her ears, and so would accomplish the desired effect of drawing attention the precious gift Naruto-kun had given her.

Yes it was all very beautifully elegant. Hinata just didn't think it would look all that great on her. But with Ino waiting with bated breath behind her, Hinata had no choice but to attempt to recreate the outfit in the sketch on herself through Paper. The different texture of the hip-guards made it more challenging, but that was a good thing considering that the entire point of this whole exercise was to improve her chakra endurance and reserves.

Once Hinata had developed the outfit to Ino's satisfaction, the blonde kunoichi once again began prowling around like tiger while Hinata stood nervously twisting her hands and feeling silly.

At last Ino gave her verdict. "Perfect. Now you look like the sexy babe you are."

That had been the last thing Hinata had expected to come out of Ino's mouth. In her shock, she stuttered out, "B-b-but last t-time you said I was h-hideous."

Ino waved a hand impatiently at Hinata as if swatting away the quieter girl's words like irritating flies and replied, "No, no, I said that what you did to yourself looked hideous. Those clothes were awful, they hid all your best features. You have a wonderful body—most kunoichi do, really. That's why I'd rather design clothes for them than for civilians. It's much easier to make someone who already looks good look better. With all the training we do, we kunoichi have even better bodies than the fashion models in civilian magazines and we need to take advantage of it!"

Hinata certainly didn't know what to make of that. Did that mean she wasn't ugly after all? Seeing Hinata's confused expression in the face of this praise, Ino's eyes lit up in understanding and she exclaimed in exasperation, "Wait, don't tell me you had no idea that you were pretty?! What, don't they have any mirrors in that huge Hyuuga compound anywhere?" And then, peering even more closesly at Hinata's face, she added, "And let me guess, you don't know how to wear make-up either." Ino turned to Sakura, "This is serious, forehead-girl. This girl needs lessons from step one. And I don't trust her to go to the hairstylist by herself. Why didn't you bring her over sooner?!"

"Take it easy, Ino-pig. You're overwhelming her."

This was starting to get out of hand. Hinata felt that this was one of those rare occasions that she had better get up the nerve to steel her spine and actually say what she felt, "I'm sorry to trouble you Ino-san, and you've been very helpful, but I don't think I need lessons in make-up or anything. I most likely won't use it anyway. And I would hate to take up more of your time."

"Well, what you do is your own business. But you should at least know _how_." Seeing the still unconvinced look on the shy girl's face, Ino bullshitted, "Besides, what if you have an undercover mission or something. It could be important." Ah, much better, now the resolute expression that looked foreign to the girl's face anyway was softening just a bit, Ino pulled her over to one of the many vanities in her closet, sat Hinata down and started a long lecture on the art of makeup. Realizing it wouldn't do to overwhelm the girl as Sakura had pointed out, she skipped over foundation and blush and such and instead just focused on two things—lipstick and eye makeup.

And of course now that the girl was in her clutches, Ino didn't let her escape without getting her hair cut and styled, and when Hinata of her own accord expressed a desire for getting two more piercings in each ear, Ino positively glowed, thinking she had finally made headway in changing the girl's apathetic attitude towards her own appearance. Little did Ino know that for Hinata, the earrings had nothing to do with an interest in her own appearance; to Hinata all that mattered was the gift Naruto-kun had given her.

* * *

Hinata left Ino's house feeling more self-conscious than she ever had before. She felt everyone was staring at her. Most likely, they were, wondering why she was wearing such an outfit. Even though what Ino had created was elegant and lovely, to Hinata it felt much flashier than her own simple pants and jacket. She couldn't fade into the background with something as striking as she had on now. Granted it was nowhere near as loud or unique as what some kunoichi wore—even Kurenai-sensei wore something much more distinctive with that bandage and fishnet look she had—but compared to the simple and staid clothes she had before, Hinata couldn't help feeling exposed. 

It got even worse when she went home. The two Hyuuga guards on duty at the compound practically stared, and that was saying something for a Hyuuga. Hinata slouched a little bit as she entered and wished she could shrink in on herself.

At least she would be able to avoid the same reaction at dinner since everyone wore simple kimonos for the Hyuuga family dinners.

But even after only a few hours in this new outfit, Hinata could already feel the strain on her chakra reserves from keeping it together. No matter how self-conscious it made her, she could tell that the outfit Ino had designed was fulfilling its most essential purpose—making her a stronger shinobi.

* * *

When she met Neji-niisan for her spar the next morning, however, he behaved much as the Hyuuga guards had when they had first seen her. Yet he merely remarked, "An interesting look, Hinata-sama." 

"Y-yes. I c-c-can already feel it a-a-affecting my chakra endurance."

"Very well. Let's see how that impacts your fighting ability." And with that, Neji attacked.

* * *

Her new outfit earned a similar reaction the next morning at the D.C. when many of her co-workers greeted her with startled looks. But while diplomat-nin were trained to be reserved, they were no where near as reticent as the Hyuuga. Quite a few commented on her appearance and she even received several compliments. 

As she worked on her latest D.C. report, however, such frivolous thoughts slipped from her mind. The Diplomacy Corps always received the data collected by the Intelligence Department. The information gathered by Konoha spies concerning other Villages and Countries was regularly passed onto the D.C. so that an understanding of contemporary politics could be worked into an understanding of treaties and overall procedure in dealing with other Villages and Countries. As a result of her promotion, Hinata had received the rather unenviable job of wading through stacks and stacks of mission reports gathered by Intelligence Department spies. Of course the most sensitive reports were sent to higher ranking D.C. officials or even directly to the Hokage herself, whereas Hinata got to read page after page of information regarding odds and ends. She dealt with the much more dull information gathered about trade or even social functions. Even after she had made it through only one of the ten stacks on her desk, Hinata could already see a pattern. Everything hinted at rising political tensions between Countries and Villages. Everyone seemed to be tightening ties with allies through trade and giving the cold shoulder to historical enemies by withholding invitations to social functions.

Hinata felt a pit of unease form in her stomach.

* * *

In the Hokage Tower, Tsunade was feeling much the same thing as she held her head in her hands. Granted the stacks of paper on her desk were not quite so tall as Hinata's, but they were much more urgent. The information she received was classified and thus didn't require the reading between the lines that Hinata's had. And so, the feeling of unease Tsunade felt was infinitely greater. There was no if about it. The ninja world was heading for a war the likes of which hadn't been seen in years. And it would be much more worse because this time around, it seemed like the daimyos and shoguns weren't happy with just sitting on the sidelines. No, they wanted a piece of the action and therefore a piece of the loot as well. 

There was no averting it either. Tensions were on edge, what with Sound's actively hostile stance against Leaf and Sand's own vendetta against Sound for the betrayal during the Sand-Sound invasion nearly three years ago. Cloud seemed like it wanted to take advantage of this instability while Stone was licking its old wounds and holding onto its grudge against Leaf from the last great war between Villages. Worse still, some of the daimyo were secretly funding Sound and banking on Orochimaru's success. Tsunade idly wondered just how her old teammate had conned the greedy old politicians; Orochimaru had always been a smooth talker. The Lord of Fire Country had sent a subtle message that he would support the Leaf as per their treaties of the past, but Tsunade knew the more civilians that got involved in this whole mess, the more casualties there would be. Yet she couldn't turn down an ally when ever single ally was priceless. And then on top of all this, there was still the Akatsuki to deal with, and it seemed like there might be civilian funding involved there as well...

It was enough to turn her to drink, Tsunade thought, pulling out a bottle of sake she judiciously kept hidden in a drawer. Shizune would disapprove no doubt, but Tsunade didn't think she could go on without it at the moment. Things were looking bleak. This would be her greatest test ast the Fifth Hokage. This would make or break her legacy. Would she go down as an example of how women weren't supposed to ever lead a Village since they would just fuck it up? Her failure would provide more fodder for those traditionalist idiots who thought kunoichi should do nothing but train in medical jutsu. Tsunade loved her work as a medic-nin but it had definitely been an acquired taste. She didn't think she would have gone into medic-nin training at all if it weren't the expected course for most kunoichi. Besides, of her three man cell, she was the one most capable of something like medical training--she didn't even want to imagine someone like Jiraiya or Orochimaru attempting healing. And even now the fact remained that it mostly fell to kunoichi to supply medical back-up for their more hard-hitting male teammates. Looking back at her leadership, would future generations say that the Fifth Hokage should have stuck to being a medic-nin like a good little kunoichi instead of worrying her pretty little head over politics and thereby causing the greatest crisis in the history of the Leaf? Or would she be able to steer her Village through the oncoming storm safely and be remembered as yet one more Hokage in a line of leaders dedicated to the Leaf? She bore the weight of the entire Village on her back.

Tsunade felt she needed a couple more drinks.  
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To be continued..._


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait, but it's end of term time, and things have been hectic. I will have papers soon, and then I'll be out of the country for a month, so the next update won't be until mid- to late June. Let me know what you think of this chapter...I'm afraid it ends rather abruptly and is scattered and all over the place. That's what happens when I don't plan exactly what I want to put in it beforehand, which is ironic considering Naruto's thoughts at the ending of this chapter.

Also, thank you to the wonderful people who reviewed chapter 13--if it wasn't for your comments, I probably wouldn't have gotten around to writing this chapter until June!  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.  
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* * *

As Sakura waited somewhat impatiently for Hinata to stop by the hospital so the two could go to lunch, she saw Chouji leaving promptly as usual for his own lunchbreak. Coming from the Akimichi clan, food was something he took seriously; Chouji would never consider delaying a meal and while warm and friendly person, he only took the time to wave to her as he rushed to get in a good meal before getting back to training and working. Fortunately, she did not have to wait long, for Hinata was as punctual as always. Seeing the dark-haired girl approaching the hospital only pausing briefly to nod a greeting at Chouji who was hurrying off to the yakiniku place he favored, Sakura left the shade offered by the Konoha Hospital entrance way. The two kunoichi chattered lightly as they walked to one of the many restaurant-lined streets in the Village. 

It had become something of a ritual between them to slowly explore as many different Konoha restaurants as they could. Sakura made a small fortune from working at the Hospital, really, since talented medic-nins—even at her admittedly intermediate level—were hard to find and there was something satisfying in spending money she had earned all on her own. As for Hinata, Sakura suspected that even though money would not be problem for a potential heir of a clan as wealthy as the Hyuuga, her friend only ever spent the money she had earned herself for these treats. Sakura did not know it, but Hinata would never ask her family for money for something as frivolous and self-serving as eating lunch with a friend. In her own way, the soft-spoken girl had a rigid sense of honor and pride. She always felt she had to earn her privileges.

This time, they had discovered a quiet family-owned restaurant that served all the usual dishes. Both ordered chilled soba noodles with dipping sauce to cool down from the scorching heat of a Konoha summer and as they waited for the food to arrive, Hinata fiddled with her chopsticks. Sakura knew that her friend only resorted to this sort of fidgeting when she was nervous or wanted to ask something, and so was unsurprised when a few seconds later, the quiet girl inquired, "Sakura, I know patient confidentially is a big thing and it's probably not my place to ask, but I just wanted to make sure that Chouji-kun is ok…"

That certainly wasn't what Sakura had been expecting. Why would something be wrong with Chouji? Had Hinata heard something? Was there gossip going around that she, Sakura, friends with the Gossip Queen Ino was unaware of?

Seeing the puzzled expression on the pink-haired girl's face, Hinata clarified, "Since I saw him leaving the hospital, I was worried that there might have been something wrong."

Sakura's eyes sparked with comprehension at last. "Oh! You mean just now? He just works there."

"He works at the Konoha Hospital?"

"Yeah, didn't you meet him when you were trying out medic-nin training a couple years back? Oh no, wait, he joined a little after you finished your basic first aid training I think. Anyway, at first he came to do just the basic first aid stuff too, but then he seemed to have something of a knack for it so he stayed on."

Hinata was a little surprised but couldn't really say why. It wasn't that she didn't think he was suited to be a medic-nin since she didn't really know anything about Chouji except what she'd picked up during their Academy days when she was always watching her classmates and never interacting with them. She frowned as she considered her own puzzlement and the two lapsed into silence. "I guess I just thought for some reason that…I don't know…Ino would be the one with medical training on their team."

Sakura looked thoughtful before finally replying, "I can see where you're coming from. I mean, usually, kunoichi end up being medic-nin but Chouji told me when he started working at the hospital that Ino had refused point-blank to be the token medic-nin on her team just because she was a girl. Actually, it was probably the biggest argument Team 10 has ever had. Shikamaru insisted that someone on their team learn medical jutsu in case of an emergency after…" Sakura paused momentarily here and her hands on the table top clenched into fists before she finally continued. It hurt. After all this time it still hurt so much just talking about things that were even obliquely related to Sasuke-kun and his abandonment of the Leaf, of his abandonment of her. "…after the failure of their mission to retrieve Sasuke-kun from the Sound Four."

Sakura tried to ignore the dull ache those memories brought up, and pinning a strained smile on her face, forced herself to focus on the topic at hand. In a voice that strained to be carefree, she continued, "I kind of have all angles on this story, actually, since I heard it from Ino too. She said that Shikamaru was really pissed off because he had to risk his teammates' lives on…on that mission to get Sasuke-kun back. Chouji and Neji really could have died and the fact that none of the boys knew any medical jutsu made it all the more dangerous. But Ino said that if it was such a big deal, why didn't he do it. She was really pissed at both him and Chouji at the time since they'd nearly gotten killed. It was typical Ino, really, all brass when she said 'Before you say it Shika, if it's too troublesome for you to learn medical jutsu, it's too troublesome for me. Besides, what good would it do anyway? Even if I had been a medic-nin when you two hared with the rest of the boys on your macho mission, you left me to wait at home like proper little woman. So if you really want one of us to learn so it's helpful, maybe one of you two lugs should do it.' And then she added that since he liked taking care of people anyway, maybe Chouji should do it." Attempting a bemused smile, Sakura concluded, "it was typical Ino all the way through."

Finished with her story, the pink-haired kunoichi sat back in silence. Hinata, a master at understanding silences, did not need to see the contemplative and slightly pained look on Sakura's face to know that this silence should not be disrupted. To Hinata, it was clear that Sakura was lost in her thoughts.

Even though she hadn't been talking about Sasuke-kun directly at all, Sakura reflected, even this one little story that he was tangentially related to made her think of him so much. She had worked so hard at first to not think of him at all because it had hurt to much to think about him even a little. In fact, soon after Sasuke's defection, Sakura had taken to avoiding Ino since seeing her rival had reminded her of their mutual interest in him and that had sent her into a spiral of painful thoughts and regrets. It had been Ino who had hunted her down one day and without preamble told her she wasn't interested in Sasuke anymore. But considering Sakura's all too publicly known unwavering feelings, even Ino had been too tactful to say what Sakura knew she was thinking: Ino could never forgive the traitor who had nearly gotten her teammates and his fellow Leaf ninja killed for the sake of his own ambition. She also hadn't minced any words as she told Sakura to get over herself so they could be friends again. And just as bluntly, Ino had told her that running away from the pain mentally wouldn't do anyone any good.

It was then that Sakura realized their rivalry over Sasuke had been pointless to begin with since they had both wanted fundamentally different things from Sasuke, which made sense, since they were fundamentally different people. Ino had wanted fun, she had wanted a cute guy she could call hers. But Sakura, she had wanted the storybook prince who would fall in love with her and the two of them would live happily ever after. And even now, when Sakura had gained the distance and perspective to see how foolishly naïve she had been, she could not help wanting that same flawed dream. Somehow, she felt that if she just got Sasuke back, she could go back to that time when they were innocent genin, to that time before all the pain and sorrow of losing a teammate. But she only felt this cynical on the bad days. On the good days, she would remember the sullen boy whose indifferent façade would shatter now and then and he would smile begrudgingly at his teammates, at her. She would remember the boy who deserved so much more than the drug of isolation and loss and revenge that he had breathed since he was a child. Hadn't Sasuke-kun suffered enough? Didn't he deserve someone who would fight in order to end that suffering and free him? .

* * *

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"Look, brat, I don't care about your fine sentiments. You're taking the damn chuunin-exam!" Tsunade massaged her temples as if to soothe a headache, but the gesture was mostly feigned. Considering the very real stress she was facing in terms of the Leaf's political future, these arguments with Naruto were almost like comic relief that provided a much needed dose of de-stressing and anger release. She smirked at herself. Really, Naruto doubled as her court-jester on some days. Maybe she could use that as an excuse to increase his paycheck.

"Screw you!" Naruto shouted back at the Fifth with his typical disrespect, his arms flailing wildly in his anger. It almost made Tsunade smile. Riling the boy was just too easy and his typical melodramatic teenage reactions were just too cute. "It's my life and I said I'm not taking it!"

"If I order you to do it, you have to! Look, kid, you don't have much money and if all you keep earning is genin pay—which, regardless of the level of the mission you take is what you're going to get—you won't be getting the _choice_ to live off of instant ramen for the rest of your life. You'll _have_ to do it whether you want to or not! Give me one good reason and I'll actually consider it."

Ninja were paid much like waiters really. A flat hourly rate which varied accordingly for genin, chuunin, and jounin, with the rank of the mission functioning as something like a tip. Of course the total cost of a mission took into account the length of time it would require, the level of expertise or special skills it would require, but that was basically how things worked. Missions were ranked D, C, B, and S according to difficulty and danger, but in terms of what percentage of that charge the ninja actually carrying it out received, well that was determined by the rank of the ninja. The political problems looming before Tsunade were so great that trying to get this simple bit of logic through Naruto's stubborn skull seemed more manageable. Besides, she was concerned for him; she wanted to make his life a little easier and just because he had already lived so long on such short funds didn't mean it had to continue this way.

At last, Naruto left behind his teenaged behavior and suddenly put on the seriousness and experience of someone decades older than himself, "You don't understand, Granny. It's…like I'm stuck. Like I can't move on, like I don't deserve to move on until I fix this."

The Fifth sighed. All the fun was gone now, and the nearly devastated look in his eyes that the boy was trying to hide worried her almost as much as the imminent crisis on the Leaf's horizon. Even after years, some wound never did heal right. Well, Tsunade understood that too. After all, it had taken her a long time to reconcile Orochimaru's defection and even longer to recover from her brother's and then Dan's death. She got up from behind her desk, and stood directly across from the boy, his face still downcast. Reaching out her hands she placed them on his shoulders so that he was forced to look at her. A part of her mind irrelevantly wondered when Naruto had gotten so tall. He was still shorter than her, but she didn't have to reach down to him like she would have three years ago. She figured, though, that by the time he hit his growth spurt in his late teens, he would be towering over her. "Listen to me Naruto. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault. You can't punish yourself like this. You're not responsible for Sasuke's mistakes. You're only responsible for your own."

She was gratified to see her words had some effect, since the fire was back in Naruto's blue yes. But she wasn't expecting the words that hurled out of his mouth angrily as he knocked her arms away. "I'm not the kind of trash that leaves my teammates behind!"

Tsunade flinched as if she had been struck. Because, after all, isn't that exactly what she had done? She knew Naruto too well to think he was taking a jab at her intentionally, but that didn't make his words which seemed to be directed at her own actions any less painful. But she didn't have time to indulge her own personal feelings, her own poorly healed wounds right now. The Hokage couldn't take the luxury of suffering nervous breakdowns or anxiety attacks. She drew a long shaky breath and said at last, "I suppose that's a good reason" and left things at that.  
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Naruto stormed out of Tsunade's office moodily. In the end, he'd gotten what he wanted, but having to explain himself to the Old Hag, well that had stirred thoughts and memories about Sasuke that he would rather have left where ever it was they lurked like a dull throbbing ache inside him. He felt vulnerable and feeling vulnerable always left him feeling defensive and feeling defensive always left him feeling slightly angry. He desperately wished for a sparring partner to work some of that anger out. Of course, that too brought up thoughts about Sasuke. Maybe he could just go find some ANBU and irritate them into attacking him…

As he strode angrily down the streets of Konoha lost in his emotions, he nearly trampled a petite girl walking in the opposite direction. Hearing an "oomph" and a softly muffled expletive, Naruto looked down with remorse in his eyes and an apology on his lips. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going and are you all right? I'm really sorry!" he babbled as he squatted down to look at the girl who was still sitting on the ground and seemed to be carefully rotating her ankle to see if she had sprained it. Naruto couldn't help following the line of her ankle up to her delicate leg which disappeared into a fall of white cloth with his eyes. But he wasn't a Jiraiya or even Ebisu level pervert and so his eyes did not linger _too_ long before finding their way up to her face. His desperate apology had caused her to turn from her ankle and face him; confronted with her large seemingly pupil-less eyes, he exclaimed incredulously, "Moon?!" It would always be easier for him to think of her as Moon, since it was as Moon that he had really started noticing her. Belatedly, he amended, "I mean Hinata. I mean, is your foot ok?"

The suddenness of the pain and the stun of the fall had distracted Hinata and kept her from realizing just who it was that had barreled into her. "N-N-N-N-Naruto-kun!" In her surprise, coherent thought seemed to have abandoned her and her stutter was back full force. Why was she always such a mess around him?

"Here, let me help you up," Naruto offered in a guilt-laced voice while holding out his hand to her. Just because he was so pissed off didn't mean he should be careless and Hinata looked so fragile sitting on the ground he felt he had been lucky to not have crushed her entirely. "I really didn't mean to run you down like that. Are you all right?"

"Oh, it's n-n-nothing. J-j-just a couple of bruises probably." Ok, so the nervous stutter was still there, but at least she was formulating sentences now, even if they were short ones. She blushed as she took his proffered hand and rose.

Naruto was still on the verge of apologizing again for his carelessness, but once Hinata stood, he finally got a good look at her and one of the loudest ninja in the village was momentarily silenced. He stood with his mouth agape for several minutes. His stare made her nervous and she strongly resisted the urge to fidget and poke her fingers together; she settled for clenching them in fists at her side. She hadn't seen Naruto-kun since that questionably successful lunch at Ichiraku's a couple weeks ago and had forgotten that he hadn't seen her new look yet. Since she'd been wearing the outfit Ino had designed for a while now, it had stopped feeling quite so new to her. She still felt it was overly flamboyant for someone as forgettable as herself, but since her acquaintance had stopped noticing it in quite the same explicit way they had at first, she herself had started feeling a little less self-conscious about the whole thing. As everyone who cared to had already commented on her new look and she herself had gotten used to wearing it, Naruto's exaggerated reaction was both debilitating and not. She could handle it better since she had already recovered from what felt like a thousand eyes staring at her after she had changed, but she hadn't expected this encounter or his reaction and it was _Naruto-kun_ so of course his prolonged attention left her stammering and blushing.

At last he managed, "Wow! No wonder I didn't recognize you at first! You look like a girl! I mean you always looked like a girl but now...It's just that I never noticed that you looked like a girl before…I mean…You're going to hit me now, aren't you?" he asked in a resigned sort of way. After having spent so much time around Tsunade, and Sakura, Naruto knew how these kind of things ended. Sadly, all the experience hadn't given him much insight into how to avoid these situations. His mouth always seemed to run ahead of his brain. Seeing that Hinata wasn't radiating killing intent like any other kunoichi of his experience would have by this point, Naruto made a last desperate attempt to explain and thereby save himself. While making conciliatory hand gestures, he blurted, "Look, look, what I was _really _trying to say was that you like...someone who stands out rather than fades away."

Hinata didn't know what to make at all of his initial words or his panicked babbling at all. And as for his final statement, she couldn't decide whether to be pained by that comment or not. She herself had thought the same thing when she had seen herself in Ino's three-way mirror, that now she was someone you saw rather than someone you saw through. Did that mean that she had just been faded in Naruto-kun's eyes all these years? But it was the truth, wasn't it? She herself had recognized it and facing this truth full on had been what allowed herself to try to change it.

For his part, Naruto couldn't help staring at her a little longer; he was after all a teenage boy. He wanted to tell her she looked gorgeous, but after years of watching the Pervert Hermit, he knew that commenting on the way a woman looked inevitably led to being beat up. But wow. He hadn't realized Hinata had been hiding so much under her baggy clothes! And it wasn't just her body…he couldn't put his finger on it right away but something about those clothes made him see the same thing he had seen in her letters. The only way he could articulate it to himself was in negatives, in what she was not: she was not average, not ordinary, not forgettable, not dull, not cloudlike. Some quality shone from her with such a radiance that it demanded attention, demanded to be acknowledged.

The silence was starting to become awkward and years of training in politeness kicked in and forced Hinata to at least attempt to make small talk. "A-are you in a h-hurry, Naruto-kun? The way you were r-rushing before…"

"Oh, that? Nah, I was just pissed off and wanted to go beat something up to blow off steam. Sorry I ran you down on the way!"

Was it her place to ask what had been bothering him? Was it too personal a question? But weren't they friends? But she couldn't let these doubts hold her back. Maybe it would help Naruto-kun to talk out whatever the matter was. Moreover, Summer and Moon certainly were something like friends and they had discussed all manner of personal history. Besides, wasn't this outfit supposed to be a physical manifestation of the inner change she was trying to make? Firming her courage even more she ventured, "D-don't worry about that. But, um, if you don't mind my asking you, is everything all right?"

Well, that certainly puzzled Naruto. He tilted his head in confusion, squinting his eyes slightly, "Well, yeah, of course everything's all right." Hinata could see in his face exactly when the meaning of herquestion became clear to him, even before he exclaimed, "Oh! You mean, why was I pissed off? I just had a fight with that Old Hag Hokage. She's been nagging me to take that damn chuunin-exam!"

Hinata didn't care that they were standing in the middle of a street and most likely obstructing traffic. Naruto-kun was talking to her! And because he was talking to her with the same familiarity that Moon and Summer shared in their letters, her own nervousness began to melt just the slightest bit and she felt a little more at ease. "Um, don't you want to take it?" she asked with a touch of curiosity in her voice.

"Hey, I don't _need_ to take the stupid test," he responded defensively, and then felt a little guilty for doing so. He could expect that kind of teasing from everyone, even Sakura who wouldn't mean it maliciously but would still taunt him good-naturedly about it, but Moon would never suggest that he wasn't good enough to pass it. "I'm not worried about passing it or anything. And it kinda bugs me that everyone else in our class is way ahead of me, but I just can't take that test until I finish what I set out to do."

He paused here, and not wanting to seem too invasive Hinata didn't prod for more details on what he meant by the last few words. She didn't want him to think she was nosy and prying, and so she merely queried, "So, you're upset that the Hokage wants you to take the test?" It was a classical, redundant, dull small talk maneuver. But while being boring, it was considerate for it allowed Naruto to respond with as much or as little detail as he wished.

While such conversational subtlety was no doubt lost on Naruto, he knew he felt comfortable talking to the quiet girl standing in front of him. She seemed to be genuinely interested in listening to him and concerned about what was troubling him. No, he didn't notice the polite small talk protocols Hinata was pulling out, but he did notice the comfortable atmosphere she seemed to exude. And so, without reservation or thought, he answered, "I know she's worried about me and I'm not really pissed _at_ her I guess. It's just that this whole thing…Sasuke's with that creepy snake-bastard and I don't know. It seems like time's moving faster and faster and just the way everything seems to be moving on and I still haven't done what I said I would. I still haven't brought him back and I don't know…taking the exam before I do it just doesn't feel right. I know I'm not making any sense."

Yes, they were talking just like Summer and Moon had written to each other. "I-I think I understand, Naruto-kun. It's symbolic for you, j-just the way this outfit is symbolic for me. I want to change into someone who makes words into actions. Who changes things rather than just wishes things were different. In a way, I feel like the change on the outside must reflect the change inside me. A-and it seems like the chuunin-exam is something similar for you, something you can't move on to until you've fulfilled your ninja way."

Naruto smiled. Not his usual rowdy grin, but a gentler smile. "Yeah. Something like that." Then he frowned slightly and added, "But, what do you want to change?"

"Well, a lot of things…but mostly…do you remember what I wrote to you about my family?"

"Oh, you mean the Hyuuga Branch/Main crap?"

"Yes, I-I really want to change it and I've been researching a little…" Hinata still didn't know how much of her plans she should reveal since they were still so embryonic. A sense of superstition lurked in her like it had when Kiba had asked what she'd been working on and she had answered vaguely; an irrational part of her worried that if she tried to verbalize it, all the unformed ideas would just collapse.

That brought out his loud grin. "I'm glad you're not waiting until I become Hokage and change it. It'll make my job easier!" She smiled back shyly in response, and blushed faintly at his praise. "So, what ideas have you got?"

She didn't care about superstitions; she could tell him anything. He was Naruto-kun, after all. But since she was still paranoid that somehow the Hyuuga might hear her blasphemous thoughts, she said, "It's kind of sensitive information, so w-would you mind if we went somewhere a little more isolated?" Naruto looked really intrigued now—he loved secrets—and after the two had walked to a nearby park and seated themselves on a secluded bench, he began prodding her for details.

"Well, I found some journals that imply the cursed-seal might be reversible but they only hint at it. I don't even know, really, how they even apply the cursed-seal, much less how to remove it. It's a very closely guarded secret. But even if I can't find a way to remove the current cursed-seal, I feel like maybe it could be phased out if I can just develop a new seal one that doesn't have mind control built into and instead, just seals the Hyuuga eyes after death. Ideally, of course, I'd like to free the Branch members currently suffering under the cursed-seal. But I feel like just figuring out how the seal works is the first and maybe even the most crucial step." No doubt about it. Her time at the Diplomacy Corps was completely affecting the way she spoke and formulated her thoughts. That probably sounded like a research paper and had bored Naruto-kun to death.

But once she finished speaking, Hinata looked up at Naruto's face and was touched by the completely thoughtful and absorbed expression on his face. She smiled slightly at how cute his pensive frown looked. "Hmmmm…so what you need most right now is information on seals."

That brought Hinata back to the subject at hand and she sighed gustily. "I've looked at everything about seals I could get my hands on at the Konoha Public Library, the Hyuuga private library, and eve the Diplomacy Corps archives I'm allowed to access. They all just provide general information and I need something much more detailed." Of course, the Hyuuga journals had proved to be helpful, but even after a couple months of studious reading, all she had gathered were glimmers and glimpses. There were hints that here and there that mentioned the seal and sealing process but never explicitly and the vague references to a possible way of removing the cursed-seal were even more nebulous.

"Maybe you need to talk to an expert or something. I guess you can't ask any of those uptight Hyuugas, they'd probably want you to quit. Well, I'd never tell a girl to go to him, but maybe you should talk to the Pervert Hermit. He bragged once when we were on that training trip that he was master of seals and that when he first met me, he removed a seal on me that…" Naruto stopped talking. Jiraiya hadn't explained to him until years later that it was most likely Orochimaru who had put another seal, one that interfered with his chakra use, on top of the seal the Fourth placed on the Nine Tails. Jiraiya had been drunk that night, when he had bragged to Naruto that he'd taught the Fourth everything the Fourth Hokage knew about seals. The old pervert probably didn't even realize what that had meant to Naruto—that Jiraiya in a roundabout sort of way was responsible or the fact that Naruto had had such a miserable childhood. After all, it was the skills the Fourth learned from Jiraiya and then perfected and advanced on his own that had allowed him to seal the monster inside a newborn infant. That was where everything had started. It had saved the Village, but…he was lost in the never-ending cycle of thoughts that he went through every time he thought about the Demon Fox raging inside him.

When Naruto went silent, a dark look on his face, Hinata who was so used to silences that she could read them, that she could tell when to break them or not, knew that this was one of the times to let things be. But she also knew that this silence, unlike Sakura's silence earlier that day at lunch, was one that needed to be probed, not now, but eventually; she knew that it was a festering silence that like a pus-filled wound needed to be drained. Right now, however, didn't seem like the right time to ask about whatever was bothering him. So for the moment, she put it aside and merely catalogued it in her mind as one more thing that needed to be done. Another entry on the Hyuuga Hinata To-Do List.

Returning to the topic at hand, she asked, "C-could you maybe introduce me to Jiraiya-sama?" And it had the desired effect of pulling Naruto out of his painful thoughts. She could see him putting on false cheerful mask, though, and that wasn't what she had wanted to do at all.

"Oh, it's almost impossible to get that pervert to take anything seriously if you ask him. Trust me," he said thinking about his own initial request that Jiraiya train him. "Nah, it'd probably work better if you could trick him into it or something." There, the cheerfulness seemed a less false now and the mischief in his eyes looked entirely genuine. "Heh maybe you could try going to a hot spring or a public bath or something and then when you catch him you can blackmail him with it," he joked.

"Oh." That didn't sound too appealing. Of course, some kunoichi and even some male shinobi capitalized on their bodies to gather information and such, but that had never been Hinata's specialization and no one would have suggested so; she was just much too shy to use sex appeal. But she supposed if that was the only way to get the information she needed from the legendary Sanin, she didn't have much choice. Naruto-kun had spent years with the man and if he said that was the best way, well, then he must be right. And she _had_ decided she was willing to do anything to change the Hyuuga…she had just never thought it would be anything so…so embarrassing. "W-w-which public b-baths do you think I should try?" she asked, her face flushed from mortification.

"Hey! I wasn't serious or anything! But…I guess it would be the best way to even get a hold of that pervert." Some part of Naruto, though, was really upset at the idea of Jiraiya ogling Hinata. "Maybe I should use henge and be the decoy at the baths," he suggested.

"B-but it would have to be the women's baths, Naruto-kun…"

"Hey, I'm not like him! I won't be looking!"

"But still…it seems unfair to all the other women. And also, since I'm the one who needs his help, it seems unfair to make you do the dirty work." Hinata mentally cringed; perhaps 'dirty work' wasn't the best way of phrasing it. It made it sound so much more sexual.

"Well, fine, I still don't like it, but if you're going to do it, I want to be there so I can put that pervert in his place if things get out of hand," he insisted. No, he didn't like this idea at all, but he could tell by the determined tilt of Hinata's head that she was bent on getting answers to her questions about seals whatever it took.

After Naruto's reluctant agreement, the two began planning out a strategy. Naruto would ask the Fifth to let him know the next time the old pervert was in the Village and overall, keep his ears open for the screams of enraged women. When they knew he was around, Hinata would go to the public baths in the morning since that was his favorite peeping time—most women came in the mornings or evenings, but the lighting was best in the mornings. He warned her emphatically to wear a towel at all times, preferably a dark one. She would subtly activate her byakugan and covertly look around to try to locate the target. Meanwhile, Naruto would hide outside and be on the lookout for the lecherous hermit, and in case Naruto located the pervert first, he would radio Hinata who would be equipped with a small ninja earpiece. She would walk up and confront him discreetly and then threaten to make an enraged scene unless he agreed to help her.

Hinata marveled at Naruto's tactical skills. Granted the entire premise was ludicrous and it sounded more like a prank than a mission, but he really was good at planning things out and preparing contingencies and everything. "You must be really good at missions, Naruto-kun," she said in admiration, "since you can strategize so well!"

For once, a faint blush dusted Naruto's cheeks. After all, compliments were few and far between for him. He laughed in a self-deprecating way and replied, "Yeah, too bad I don't think about missions like this!" But maybe Hinata was on to something. He never bothered to plan out missions half as well; from extensive pranking he knew spontaneous inspiration was vital too and that's what he usually relied on in a fight or a mission, but maybe if combined the spontaneity and pre-planning and research for missions and fights just like he used to for pranks…  
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_To be continued..._


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry for the slow update-; this was a hard chapter to write. Totally unedited, let me know if you catch any glaring errors. Do tell me what you think of Hiashi; writing him was an interesting experience.

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers—you're the reason why I keep posting. Otherwise, I would give into my inherent laziness and leave this story as a giant 20+ page outline. Also, thanks in particular to my anonymous reviewers **Seansy**, **Shinigami**, and **GWise** to whom I can't respond individually.  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others.

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* * *

There was no doubt about it; the Hyuuga never did anything by halves. Hinata found herself considering the Hyuuga tradition of the cursed seal with a grudging if disgusted respect, if nothing else for the thoroughness with which it was carried out. From what she had gathered, the cursed seal could only be undone by a Main Hyuuga. And so, except for outright revolt from the Main House, there was no way to do away with it. Even if Branch members knew how the seal worked, they couldn't manipulate it since it required someone unmarked to remove the seal. Furthermore, force was futile: if enough Branch members revolted and ambushed a Main member in order to force him/her to remove the seal, the Main could just use the seal and kill the Branch. The cursed seal was a very handy tool that overrode even the maxim that knowledge was power. Even if a Branch member knew how to undo the seal, that knowledge was meaningless since it could never be implemented. On second thought, however, she supposed that knowledge _was_ power after all because if she could just find out the details regarding the sealing process she could maybe unravel it all. 

At this point, Hinata was sure it was only a matter of time; eventually she would stumble across a diary that belonged to a Hyuuga that was less circumspect who had recorded in more detail how the process worked. Of course, when she was depressed it felt like that never would happen, for when was there ever a Hyuuga who was less circumspect? But talking with Naruto-kun had cheered her up, and as was his way, he had managed to rub off some of his optimism on her. Yes, she would find the secrets of the cursed seal, and if it wasn't through the journals, it would be through the legendary hermit Jiraiya-sama.

* * *

Sakura was surprised one day at the hospital by a visit from Naruto. Usually, her brash teammate avoided the Konoha Hospital like the plague, which was ironic all things considered. She supposed anywhere that required being quiet and lying down went against his entire nature. She was further surprised when she realized Naruto had stopped by to ask if she knew where Hinata was. Had the boy finally gotten a clue through his thick skull? It seemed too good to be true. She would have pried for more details, but a medic-nin was tapping his foot impatiently and waiting for her to get back to the blood tests she'd been performing. Sakura only had time to tell Naruto that Hinata would stop by around the hospital at lunchtime before, like a giant orange whirlwind, he was gone with as much noise as he had come in. 

And so, when Hinata showed up to meet Sakura for lunch as usual, her heart sped up on seeing Naruto leaning against the pillars at the entrance of the Konoha Hospital next to Sakura. He seemed to be barely containing his eagerness while an exasperated Sakura looked on.

No matter how much Sakura had nagged—she preferred to think of it as "inquiring assertively"—Naruto had refused to breathe a hint about what was going on. She'd even tried haranguing and then guilt tripping him for interrupting her usual girltalk lunches with Hinata. His entirely uncharacteristic—well it was characteristic in that it was all Naruto: over-the-top, over-excited, enthusiastic, and brimming with energy—behavior had all of Sakura's suspicions raised. The way he practically beamed on seeing Hinata's confirmed it for her, but it was their conversation that her absolutely flabbergasted.

As for Hinata, she found herself blushing her customary tomato red on seeing Naruto-kun perk up at her appearance. "Hey, hey!" he said enthusiastically, giving her that adorable grin of his, "Just the girl I wanted to see!"

Sakura watched in something akin to shock as clumsy bumbling Naruto walked up to her reserved friend with a knowing smile on his face and put an arm around her shoulder in a conspiratorial manner, as if the two shared a secret, and continued "There's something I want to talk to you about." Looking over his shoulder, he yelled over, "You don't mind if I steal Hinata away today, do you Sakura-chan?"

No, Naruto did not do subtle. But he was just so…slow about these things that Sakura could not really bring herself to believe the evidence staring her in the face. She just could not believe it. _Naruto_ had taken the initiative. Maybe the boy wasn't as dense as she had believed. She couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that all her devious matchmaking plots were entirely unnecessary. In fact, before Naruto's precipitous arrival, she'd been thinking of giving Hinata another lecture during lunch today about not burying her feelings and going after her desires. Damn, and she'd had some brilliant ideas on how to set Hinata and Naruto up too! But it seemed that such machinations were not entirely useless. She would have to grill Hinata as soon as she could and extract all the juicy details from her.

As she watched Naruto grab Hinata's hand and practically drag the poor girl away, Sakura wondered to herself why the entire Hinata-Naruto situation was so important to her in the first place. Of course both Naruto and Hinata were her friends so it was only natural for her to want to see the two together and be happy, but she suspected there was more to it. Perhaps it was because her own case was so hopeless that she wanted to see her friends happy at least. Sasuke inhabited a different world—even when he had still been in Konoha, he had inhabited a different world than hers, and his had been drenched in memories of pain, blood, and a thirst for revenge. But one day, with the help of all the people who cared about him, she would draw Sasuke away from all that. At the moment, however, she felt entirely helpless and useless. Hinata at least had the opportunity to do something; that she steadfastly refused to do it for reasons Sakura couldn't quite grasped bothered her. That was probably why it angered her so much seeing Hinata refusing to take her love life into her own hands.

Sakura shook her head, as if hoping to physically dislodge the serious mood that had fallen over her. Her matchmaking schemes might now be obsolete since it seemed that Naruto and Hinata had gotten together without any further help from her, but at least she was the first who had the news. If Inner Sakura couldn't try out the role of matchmaker she could at least play the part of gossipmonger. She decided to head for the Yamanaka Flower Shop to spread the juicy tidbit that Naruto and Hinata_ were an item_. The Number One Surprising Ninja indeed. No doubt the two of them would become the Number One Surprising Couple.

* * *

Neither Sakura nor Ino could not have been expected to realize that their harmless spate of gossip would spread like wildfire, which it did because of the two main parties concerned in the rumor. Firstly and most importantly there was the Demon Brat as most of the villagers still thought of him—anything concerning him would be on the tips of everyone's tongues in record time simply because most still distrusted him and regarded him as the Nine-Tails Fox and thought it best to keep up with any development in that quarter. It was a sort of notorious celebrity which made Uzumaki Naruto even more famous than the Hokage in some ways. And secondly, this particular rumor concerned the potential heir of the strongest clan of Konoha; as tight-lipped as the Hyuuga were about everything, the fact that one of its significant members was gossip-fodder intrigued quite a few listeners.

* * *

Entirely unaware of the social storm brewing around them because of the eagerly wagging tongues of Konoha citizenry, Naruto and Hinata sat on a pair of stools at Ichiraku's blissfully unaware. "Heh heh," Naruto snickered while rubbing the back of his head, "I figured you'd want to know right away—Pervert Hermit's back in town! Sorry for cutting into your girly lunches or whatever Sakura-chan calls them, but I didn't know if you wanted her to know about the big plan. Besides, she'd probably call the whole thing a perverted scheme." 

That had Hinata blushing and worried. Was their plan inappropriate? Would she get Naruto-kun in trouble? Should she even be doing this? At last she ventured, "Do you really think it's p-p-p-perverted, Naruto-kun?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Nah, you just want answers right? And this is the best way of getting them. But Sakura-chan's all…I don't know, girly like that."

Hinata still felt unsure, but seeing the excitement Naruto-kun seemed to be trying to contain at the idea of pranking Jiraiya-sama, she couldn't help nodding reluctantly. Apparently she had made the right choice because he eagerly fell to finessing their plans to entrap the legendary hermit and hopefully extract a promise to help Hinata with understanding seals. The conversation was entirely devoid of anything explicitly romantic. But Hinata couldn't help feeling fluttery, simply sitting next to Naruto-kun, so close in fact in their secretive plotting that their shoulders were touching and she could feel Naruto-kun's warm, miso-flavored breath against her cheek as he whispered details to her in order to prevent being overheard. She was blushing again, but at least she could pretend it was just a flush brought on by eating hot ramen on a hot day.

For his part, Naruto was thrilled to be pranking again—it reminded him of one of the few fun things of his childhood. And Hinata certainly made a better pranking partner than he'd ever had on the few occasions when some of the kids in his class in the Academy had joined him. On the one time Shikamaru had been involved, he had grumbled about the "troublesomeness" of the whole endeavor and particularly of the aftermath which consisted of running from an enraged Iruka-sensei. And since Shikamaru refused to repeat such a troublesome experience again, Chouji naturally declined as well; the stout Akimichi boy only followed where his friend led. He had worked with Kiba several times, but they were both so prone to getting into arguments and shouting that they usually gave themselves away before they could accomplish anything. But, Hinata, she seemed to be genuinely paying attention to everything he had to say and even offered some brilliant suggestions—at first hesitantly, but after seeing him take every one of her comments seriously, she began to speak as if more at ease—that showed she was really interested. Suddenly, he wondered what it would be like to work on something…real, something serious with her. Not on a mission, but something….Ah! What the hell was he thinking? None of it made sense. He wasn't even sure what his mind was trying to get at! Stupid mind. Couldn't it just be direct and tell him clearly whatever it was?

Somewhat frustrated, he pushed away his empty bowl of ramen, and turned back to Hinata's profile as she studied the brief sketches Naruto had made of the area surrounding the bathhouse in question. Without thinking, Naruto brushed the lock of hair that was half covering her ear, and seeing the three moonstone drops lining her ear, he exclaimed happily, "Hey, you're wearing them!" He sat back on his stool inordinately pleased. He didn't know if Hinata would like his little souvenir, and really it was the first real present he had ever given anyone.

Feeling the gentle brush of Naruto-kun's fingers through her hair and against her ear had almost caused Hinata to pass out entirely. She managed to tamp down on her nervousness but not on her stutter as she answered, "Y-y-yes. I, I w-w-w-wear them a-all the t-t-time." She groaned mentally; it was worse than usual. Had Naruto-kun even been able to make out anything she'd said at all?

But seeing the amazed smile on his face as he said, "So you really like those…what was it Sakura-chan called them ear-ring or something?" Hinata could only manage a smile in response, but it seemed to convey the point. They talked briefly and stumblingly of other matters for a few more minutes. Before they left, both confirmed once more to meet early tomorrow morning at the Steamy Leaf Bathhouse to try out their plan. Hinata stood outside the ramen stand, watching Naruto walk away, a small smile playing on her lips. She was no longer just a nobody in his eyes.

* * *

Much of her good mood dissipated as soon as she got home. At first she had thought herself overly self-conscious when she felt that the Hyuuga guards were eyeing her with well-disguised surprise as they had when she had shown up in her new outfit. But when a Branch maid came to her room only minutes after she herself did saying that Neji-niisan was requesting an audience with her, Hinata knew something was wrong. She headed out to the garden the maid had said he was waiting in. 

She was not scared of Hyuuga Neji anymore but seeing that particularly serious expression on his face and the tension in his posture made her nervous. She realized that she feared disappointing him now as much as she had feared his anger and his hatred before. Without any hesitation on his part, before she had even made it across the garden, really, he looked directly at her and said, "You have been indiscreet, Hinata-sama. It's all over the village."

She was so shaken up by his serious demeanor, her first thought was that he meant her plan to infiltrate the bathhouse in order to blackmail Jiraiya-sama. But the initial shock, along with the idiocy, wore away and she felt a pit of dread form in her stomach as she realized he must be talking about her plan to rid the Hyuuga of the cursed-seal. Was the hopeful future she had imagined for her clan doomed now because she had carelessly given it all away somehow?

Seeing the wretchedly guilty expression on his cousin's face, Neji decided this was one of the rare occasions he would indulge in mercy and finish this as quickly as possible. "Just why were you consorting with Uzumaki Naruto?"

He could see her surprise in the widening of her eyes. Apparently, this outing with Uzumaki today was not the only thing preying on her conscience. He wondered if he should delve further into the matter; there was no doubt he could force a confession out of her if pushed regarding whatever it was that had covered her face with guilt mere moments ago. But he was learning to trust this member of the Main house. Whether it concerned her personal, professional, or clan life, he had enough faith in her to know that she would never do anything truly wrong. Indeed, even the conversation he had intended to have with her in the first place was meant more as warning on what to expect from Hiashi-sama this evening rather than an interrogation. He almost took back his presumptuous question—after all, it took time to overcome the habits of a lifetime and he was more used to treating her with condescension than with genuine respect—but she answered it before he could.

Hinata's eyes had widened and her heart had resumed beating again with relief on realizing that she had _not_ dashed all hope of undoing and replacing the cursed-seal. But she was also confused; if Neji-niisan was not questioning her about what she had initially asusmed, then what exactly was the problem? Just why did it matter if she was spending time with Naruto-kun? Her family had never cared before—or even noticed for that matter—who, if anybody, the shy heir of the clan "consorted" with. "W-w-w-we were j-just w-w-working on a, a, a p-pro—" she had almost said project and almost implicated herself again. Granted she and Naruto-kun had been discussing the Jiraiya-entrapment-plan, but that was just part of the larger cursed-seal-elimination plan, which was something she didn't want to even breathe a hint about within the ever present eyes and ears of the Hyuuga compound. Instead, she finished lamely "um, t-training. W-we were t-t-training t-together" and hoped Neji-niisan wouldn't notice. Well, she knew he would notice, she merely hoped he wouldn't point out the discrepancy.

Neji stared at her with his inscrutable white eyes for a few moments in silence. There were layers and layers here. But hadn't he just thought he would and could trust her? And so he merely responded, "You had better be able to lie better to Hiashi-sama this evening," before bowing slightly to her and leaving.

* * *

By dinnertime, so many knots of tension had worked their way into her muscles, Hinata didn't think she could enumerate them all. In typical Hyuuga fashion, Neji-niisan had been less than explicit, but it was clear to her that he was trying to warn of her something. What kept baffling her, and therefore making her anxious, was exactly what it was that "was all over the village." What did it matter if she went to eat ramen with Naruto-kun? She met with Team 8 in a social context regularly and it had never been remarked on. 

With this anxiety preying on her mind, she could not help but think of the rather odd reaction Naruto-kun elicited in most villagers. She had noticed it first at the age of 7, when she had really started noticing what an amazing person Naruto-kun was. Some of the other children had made fun of him, and even when they roughly pushed him down, he didn't cry, but just gave his typical grin and said "I don't want to play with a bunch of losers like you anyway!" Awed at his reaction, she followed him from a distance, wanting to know what it was that allowed him to take their rejection with a smile.

She herself had been such a social pariah at the Academy, however, (everyone always whispered derisively about the "spoiled" Hyuuga heiress who thought she was too good to talk to anyone) that she was afraid of approaching him directly. Her fragile self-esteem couldn't withstand another rejection. So she had started following him every day after school; she would trail after him until it would be time for her training lessons. Now she saw her cowardice for what it was; she had done both herself and Naruto-kun a disservice by staying in the shadows. He was much too kind to treat someone with the same scorn he had been treated with and by watching him secretly, she suspected that she had prevented both of them from having the comfort of a childhood friend. But wallowing in regret would do nothing. She would simply continue becoming friends with him in the present. _And if something more happened…_she thought wistfully.

At any rate, after a while, she had noticed a clear pattern in the way the villagers treated him. Somehow, they knew him on sight—blue eyes and blond hair were not common in the village and those whisker marks on his cheeks were certainly distinctive, and so somehow his reputation seemed to always precede him. She'd been surprised the first time she'd seen a grocer chase the small 8-year-old Naruto out of a shop with shouts of "We don't want you here, demon!" More often than not, he was greeted with cries of "Demon," "Monster," and looks of hatred and fear. She did not understand then. But that was ok. She herself was the recipient of hatred she didn't understand. After all, it was not until she was much older that she understood exactly _why_ her uncle Hizashi had hated her enough to spike his killing intent while simply watching her fail miserably in learning the Hyuuga fighting style from her father when she was a child. All that had registered in her childish mind at the time was the terrible scene afterward, where her father had activated the cursed seal on his twin's forehead and Neji-niisan had run over distraught to his father who was writhing in pain on the floor. Similarly, faced with the way Naruto-kun was treated, in her childish way, she didn't question the why simply because that was not the significant part. After all, whatever reason they could have for hating him, it didn't' make any difference, did it? All that mattered was that they _did_ hate Naruto-kun and it was one more thing that made his life miserable and it was one more thing he covered with a grin. It was impossible not to love someone with that much courage.

But to return to the problem at hand, was that the source of the disapproval Neji-niisan had tried to prepare her for? That same unthinking, violent hatred that had chased a small orphan boy away from food?

* * *

Dinner passed in the usual manner: business matters were discussed, Hanabi's and Neji's achievements approved, and Hinata overlooked. She sighed in relief as the dishes were cleared up and not a single mention was made about her the entire meal. She did receive several disapproving looks. Although that too was usual. Perhaps Neji-niisan had been unduly concerned. 

That happy thought died a quick death as her father turned to look at her and, while other family members looked on with a malicious curiosity, said, "Hinata, there is something I wish to discuss with you." He rose, the expectation clear that she would follow him.

He lead her to his suite of rooms, stopping in an outer office which was as minimal and bare as the rest of the Hyuuga compound. He knelt on one side of a long low table which was covered in neat stacks of paper and gestured for her to sit across from him. It somehow made her feel like a petitioner. He eyed her in silence for a long space, as if seeing her for the first time since she had been small child of five who continually disappointed his expectations.

Hiashi was not quite certain how to proceed. When the rumor had first reached his ears through one of the Hyuuga spies that his daughter had been seen consorting with the Demon Fox, he had been filled with unmitigated rage. Then he remembered the rowdy blond boy who had so soundly defeated his nephew in the chuunin exam three years ago. He could not reconcile the way the Hyuuga spy had whispered "Demon Fox" in tones of hate and fear with his memory of that determined boy who had promised to change the Hyuuga. His own conflicted perceptions of the boy, however, did not matter; the Hyuuga dignity and reputation took precedence.

With that in mind, he began, "There are rumors spreading through the village detailing various degrees of romantic intimacy between you and" a slight pause, a distasteful expression, and then, "Uzumaki Naruto."

The surprise in his daughter's eyes was genuine as she managed to choke out, "R-r-romantic i-intimacy?" Indeed, her voice almost disappeared into a squeak near the end there. Of course, entirely unfamiliar with his daughter's mind or even the nuances that shaded her voice, Hiashi had no way of knowing that her surprise was strongly tinged with a wistful desire.

"We will set the rumors aside for now." The disapproval etched on his face indicated, however, that at least in his mind, the rumors had not been set aside. "It was verified that you were fraternizing with the boy at a local ramen stand."

An uneasy part of Hinata wondered if her father had spies trailing her. Worrying about that now was pointless, so she merely nodded an affirmation to his statement.

His next question threw her entirely off balance: "Why?"

Somehow, Hinata had the feeling that answering with "Because I love and admire him," or "Because I need help plotting the demise of the Main-Branch divide" would not go over too well. So she elaborated on what she had said to Neji-niisan when he had confronted her, making her lie as close to truth as she could—which was another thing she had learned while working at the Diplomacy Corps: how to make likes sound like truth. "B-b-because h-he's a, a s-strong n-ninja. A-and I, um, w-wanted to a-a-ask him to t-train with me…" Her father's look of impatience at her stuttering reply only made matters worse; the nervousness, anxiety, and dread all only managed to enhance it even more. This was obviously not a good day for her; she was regressing in the worst ways to her old habits.

Hiashi sat back at length contemplating her words. There was certainly a ring of truth in them; he himself clearly remembered how that boy had fought against Neji. Furthermore, his daughter was so continually nervous that even his byakugan could not see through it. There was no point in looking below the surface of that nervousness. If he had thought Hinata the devious type, he would have considered that she might have perhaps found the perfect mask to hide everything under. All in all, he believed her without any reservations. Hinata was too easily intimidated to be withholding anything from him; now if it were Hanabi, he would never take such an answer from her at face value.

That it was all simply a matter of training, which had been blown out of proportion by prattling gossips, relieved him to no end. That Uzumaki boy had won a grudging admiration from Hiashi in that fight in the chuunin exams, and so he personally approved of the boy as a ninja. The boy was doubtlessly a strong shinobi and his weak daughter would certainly benefit from the example of a ninja who had lifted himself out of a similar weakness if the reports that the boy had been the deadlast in his class were to be believed. Hinata was utterly hopeless at the jyuuken, although she had managed to learn the kaiten at last. Although it was a disgrace that she would never be a good Hyuuga fighter, at least she might be an average fighter with other styles. At least if she were a decent ninja in some respect she would not drag the reputation of the clan further into the mud. Indeed, the more he considered it, the more he approved of the idea of her training with the Uzuamaki boy.

Besides, despite the grumblings of many on the Village Council that the boy was too great a danger, he was the best weapon the village had in cases of extremity. Hiashi had always felt that the Hokage—both the Third and the Fifth—gave him too free rein. Wasn't it time someone started keeping an eye on just what Uzumaki Naruto was up to? And better yet for the clan if the Hyuuga were the ones with inside information on his skills, abilities, weaknesses, and potentially threatening traits. It could prove advantageous in the future—near future if the murmurs of political instability in the council proved true. In watching the boy while training with him, perhaps his daughter's uselessness could finally prove useful.

Hiashi prided himself in being a rational enough man to see that the boy could not be the Demon Fox he contained after that fight he had observed. For such a bloodthirsty monster would not have granted mercy and healing to his nephew. But Hiashi would never consider the boy a fit companion for any member in the clan, much less a member of the Main house. He was no more than a no-account orphan in Hiashi's eyes, really, and much worse than that in the eyes of the village. While Hiashi may personally disagree with the majority of the villagers regarding the boy's demonic nature, the political and social standing of the clan had to be taken into account at all costs. The Hyuuga would lose all respect in the eyes of the council if the villagers thought it true that his daughter was "hopelessly in love with" the Demon Fox as those rumors claimed.

And so, Hiashi decided to voice a guarded approval for this plan of his daughter's, adding that he expected no appreciable results in her fighting as years of training with her genin teammates had wrought no changes. Indeed, he had not even bothered to spar with her to evaluate her skills since she had made chuunin; there was no doubt in his mind that her fighting skills would plateau at this point and this would be the highest rank she could achieve.

His mood effectively soured by considering her worthlessness as a shinobi, he added in a harsher tone than he intended, "As for those damaging rumors of your _romantic entanglement _with the boy, they were no doubt the result of you associating with him too freely in public." His daughter looked as if he had struck her. Apparently, she found the Hyuuga name coupled with that of a ninja in such poor standing with the village as offensive as he did. His tone softened slightly as he warned her to minimize her social interaction with the boy in the future so they would not be misconstrued. "No doubt," he concluded, "left on their own, these distasteful rumors will disappear like fog under a sunbeam." His last words were a common Hyuuga saying which punned on the Hyuuga name—Hyuuga:日向 "facing the sun" and thus facing truth by dissolving all the fog that lay in between with those eyes that could stare into the sun itself.

Lastly, he instructed her to watch Uzumaki's fighting for anything unsual—odd chakra, strange transformations and the like. He saw her purse her lips slightly as he told her to inform him immediately if she noted any of the above. Near the end of their conversation, some parental impulse in him forced him to ask, "Do you want some Hyuuga shinobi to covertly observe your training with Uzumaki in case the boy…proves dangerous?"

This garnered him another confused glance and then an entirely unhesitant response, "No, I trust Naruto-kun, father."

Hiashi's eyes narrowed the slightest bit as he considered that. Her strong declaration, the absence of the stutter, the use of the familiar "-kun" aroused the slightest bit of suspicion in him. But then again, the boy was her equal in age and they had both attended the Academy together, it might be natural for her to refer to him with "-kun" as she would any other male classmate. And most significant of all, this was fearful, obedient Hinata; she would not cross his will in this or in any other thing.

Moreover, his daughter was entirely ignorant of the specific danger he was referring to and he could not elaborate for her without breaking the Third's directive, which had survived the old man's death. Regardless, he would honor his daughter's decision in this. She had proven herself worthy of such consideration throughout this interview on a number of levels: she was clearly attempting to improve herself, as hopeless as such an endeavor was, even if it meant training with someone beneath her; she was concerned about the clan's reputation and would avoid the ignorant behavior that had given rise to the slander; and furthermore, although she was unaware of it, she would be providing the clan with possibly vital information regarding the unknown element known as Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

As she left her father's rooms, Hinata was equal parts dismayed and outraged. It was clear that her father did not share the same unparalleled hatred and fear she had seen first on the face of the grocer who had chased Naruto-kun all those years ago. But it was also clear that the head of the Hyuuga clan considered Naruto-kun with a calculation that regarded Naruto-kun in the same light as a shuriken or a kunai; it was apparent that in her father's eyes, Naruto-kun was no person at all but only a weapon to be considered in terms of benefits and liabilities. To think her father wanted her to actually _spy_ on Naruto-kun. To think he actually thought Naruto-kun dangerous. To think that her father consider any idea of a relationship between herself and Naruto as degrading. Chilled, she wondered if he would have those Hyuuga spies trailing her in the future. 

Her mind turned once more to Neji-niisan's words earlier that day. He had merely said that she had been "indiscreet." She smiled as she finally understood Neji-niisan's Hyuuga subtlety, his tacit approval. For he had not opposed her "fraternization," as her father called it, with Naruto-kun but merely warned her against being too obvious about it.

While her father had expressed his disapproval of Naruto-kun in no uncertain terms, Hinata did not even consider forgoing his friendship after having gained it at long last. She had spent enough lonely years _wishing_ for the courage to talk to him; she would not throw it all away for her father's unstated prejudice. At least he had not expressly forbidden her from seeing Naruto-kun at all. Indeed, he had even encouraged her seeing him as long as it "did not jeopardize the social standing of the clan." Well, this too would become one more of her secrets. Although she had been working secretly on her project to abolish the cursed seal and create an uncursed seal for quite some time now, she had not realized the full force of the illicitness of her actions until now. If her father was so strongly opposed to her associating with Naruto-kun because it might somehow disgrace the Hyuuga, what would he think of her desire to dismantle the entire clan structure? She would have to guard all these secrets with her life until they were strong enough to survive without her aid.

Hinata could not help thinking it funny in an ironic sort of way that she had just decided to hide something essentially nonexistent. After all, her grand plan to do away with the cursed seal was nothing more than a day dream at this point and all she had with Naruto-kun was a tentative friendship, not a "romantic entanglement" or anything even remotely close to it.

* * *

It was only after the crisis was entirely averted that Hinata realized that Naruto-kun was completely oblivious to these supposed training sessions that her father had just approved.  
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_To be continued..._


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Apologies if the Japanese text doesn't show up on your browser. You should be able to make sense of the chapter without it. I do hope all that bit about kanji near the end makes sense! Again, unedited. I'll try to catch and fix grammar/spelling mistakes in the next week or so. I'm afraid the chapter came out a bit unbalanced and I think the bit with Hanabi, especially at the end reads clumsily…Let me know what you think.

And, as always, thanks to all my wonderful re viewers; special thanks to the anonymous reviewers to whom I can't respond individually: **Just A Reader**, **Duramiun**

**Travis Lock:** I didn't actually watch any of the filler arc, so I didn't know about things you mentioned regarding Hinata's character development in that. Hopefully, my Hinata is not too OOC!  
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_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material._

_Summary: AU after Naruto leaves on training trip with Jiraiya. Hinata realizes that to become a strong ninja, she must find her own path. The ninja world seems to be heading for another war. NaruHina maybe others._  
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* * *

Hanabi sat in the dim moonlight that filtered through the window of her room and smirked. She'd seen the way some of the Main house members had been eying her sister during dinner, heard the whispers around her. Her useless older sister was going to be put back in her place—the place she belonged in, which was under Hanabi. Hinata had no right showing Hanabi up the way she had just days ago with that brown-nosing talk about helping Branch servants. Who cared about Branch servants anyway? There was no doubt in Hanabi's mind that Hinata had only spewed all that nonsense just to make Hanabi look bad in front of their father. After all, why else would she have said any of that? But everything was all right now. There was no doubt in Hanabi's mind that even as she sat in the semi-darkness of her bedroom, Hinata was cowering like a frightened rabbit in the face of their father's displeasure. Hanabi wasn't quite sure what the fuss was all about, but it was pretty clear that her sister had disgraced the clan _again_. Apparently, her sister didn't need Hanabi's help to make herself look bad; she could do that all on her own. 

Growing up in this house, if there was one thing Hanabi had learned, it was that everyone was out for themselves and if you weren't in your own corner, no one was. If Hanabi didn't upstage her pathetic sister on her own, no one, not even her immediate family, would stand up for her when it came time for the cursed seal to be branded in her forehead. She knew how the clan worked. They would never let her stay in the Main family if she didn't become the heir. While they dangled those Hyuuga heir training sessions before her, she still had hope. She knew her older sister had to be thinking the same way too.

Although, come to think of it, Hinata was just fool enough to be worried about other people too. For all Hanabi knew, maybe Hinata _did_ take all that concern about the Branch servants seriously. Well, if that was the case, it merely confirmed Hanabi's conviction that her sister was a weak fool. A fool because she was wasting her time looking out for someone else when she should be looking out for herself. And weak because she couldn't see that if she didn't look out for herself, no one else would.

She couldn't wait to see her sister's dispirited expression in the morning.

* * *

Steamy Leaf Operation: Day 1 

As they had planned, Hinata showed up at the Steamy Leaf Bathhouse directly after her morning training spar with Neji-niisan. It was just 6:30 AM; the bathhouse would probably reach its morning business peak around 7. She rushed into the changing room so she could be positioned in a quiet corner of the large indoor pools as soon as possible. Considering her conversation with her father last night, Hinata couldn't help being grateful that she and Naruto-kun had decided to not meet up near the bathhouse before or after the sting operation. Apparently, after some spectacular prank on Naruto-kun's part in the beginning of their journey involving peeping, bathhouses, and hordes of bloodthirsty women, Jiraiya-sama would suspect that something was amiss if he were to see Naruto-kun near the women's side of a bathhouse.

Hinata didn't relish telling Naruto-kun about what her father had said last night. Their friendship was already so shaky that she had no idea how to tell him that she couldn't be seen in public with him. He would probably end up thinking she was ashamed of him! That she hated him just like so many of the other villagers seemed to. She groaned slightly in frustration. She wanted him to _like_ her not hate her. How could she possibly tell him such a thing?!

She neatly folded her towel and underclothes and placed them in one of the small baskets that lined the walls of the changing room. The pack of paper she'd brought to embed chakra into after her bath so that she could wear out as clothes was hidden away at the bottom in order to avoid suspicion. She pulled out a smaller towel that she wrapped firmly around herself, grabbed her small plastic basket filled with bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and soap, and headed for the main bathing room.

As she scrubbed herself at the cleaning area with one of the small handheld showers, Hinata considered her situation. She had already lied to her father to make things easier. She could lie to Naruto-kun now to make things easier as well. And it wouldn't be lying, exactly, would it? She could just…fail to tell him the truth. She could avoid mentioning anything about what her father said about how she shouldn't "consort" with someone in such low social standing as Uzumaki Naruto. She could just ask for sparring sessions—and wasn't that adding insult to injury, that she had to ask him for those stupid training sessions her father had agreed to? Why would Naruto-kun want to spar with someone as pathetically weak as she was?—and pretend it had been her own idea to do so. And then she could just spill out the whole awful situation to Sakura-chan and tell her how her father had forbidden her from "fraternizing" with one Uzumaki Naruto so as to avoid misunderstandings. She could beg Sakura-chan to always be present when she was spending time in public places like Ichiraku's with Naruto-kun, and surely her father wouldn't object to that since it would look like just a bunch of friends hanging out. She knew Sakura-chan well enough to know that her friend would take pity on her and follow through with the deception, even if she didn't like it.

She rinsed the conditioner out of her hair. All this scheming was pointless. She could never lie to Naruto-kun. What would be the point of wanting his friendship, if she made that friendship dishonest? No, she wouldn't enjoy telling Naruto-kun the truth, in fact, it might rate as one of her worst experiences, but she would do it. He'd probably never want anything ever to do with her again.

With that miserable thought, Hinata rewrapped the small towel around herself and gloomily headed towards one of the large pools. Other women stared at her a little oddly since it was uncommon to wear a towel into the bath itself; most of the time, it was even against the bathhouse rules, but considering what Naruto-kun had told her about Jiraiya-sama's perversions, Hinata didn't think she could ever walk into a bathhouse without wearing a towel ever again.

The water was nice and steamy, just as the name of the bathhouse claimed. It was scalding almost at first, and reached up to her chest. She found a quiet ledge to lean against and let out a genuine sigh of contentment as she felt her sore muscles loosen with the heat. She hadn't been there for five minutes, her eyes closed as she allowed herself to relax a little, before she heard a voice say, "Excuse us, dear." She looked up to see two matronly women enter the pool and settle down near her corner. The morning rush must already be underway, the place was starting to look crowded. She turned to the women and said, "Please, go ahead."

She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before one woman reached out her hand, grabbed Hinata's shoulder, and in a voice oozing concern and pity, "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, dear. I hadn't realized you were _blind_!"

It took a moment for the meaning to sink in. The woman was talking about her white eyes! It was so commonly accepted in ninja circles, and especially with the Hyuuga clan so well-known, that no one had ever before said to her face what they had surely thought on first seeing those pupil-less Hyuuga eyes.

"Don't you know anything?" the other woman broke in. "She's a ninja. It's that what's-it-called big name clan. They all have white eyes like that."

"T-They're grey!" Hinata blurted out and applied quick henge while hoping the women wouldn't notice anything amiss. She'd had enough of the gossip mill. The last thing she needed was for her father to decide that it was inappropriate for a member of the Main house to be seen frequenting a common civilian bathhouse.

The first woman leaned in closer and peered into Hinata's eyes critically. "Huh." She puffed at last, "So they are. Must've been a trick of the light." At ease again, the matronly woman smiled, "I guess that's no surprise. It's so steamy in here!"

The two women fell into an easy chatter, and Hinata relaxed marginally after her close call. She activated the byakugan, careful to make sure she still had the henge activated on top of it. The women left after a good half-hour. Hinata nodded at them, saying she'd stay for another five minutes or so. In order to avoid any further suspicion, she decided that she'd step out for a bit, enter, scrub herself once more, and pretend she was just coming to the take a bath for the first time. Besides, if she didn't get out of the water for a bit, she was afraid she might pass out from overheating.

Apparently, awkward civilian interactions weren't over for her. As she scrubbed herself in order to enter the pool for a second time, the woman who was sitting on the low washing stool next to her looked over, and said, "Oh, you poor thing, how did you get that terrible scar?"

Again, at first Hinata was entirely baffled by the woman's words. Following the woman's plump gesturing hand, Hinata looked down at her shin and noticed a faint six-inch long scar that ran diagonally along the front of her left leg, starting right below the knee.

And this was why kunoichi tended to avoid civilian bathhouses. When they had the option, kunoichi preferred bathhouses and onsen that catered to ninja exculsively because even the most brash ones, like Anko-san who had proctored part of their first chuunin exam, didn't want the type of stares generally directed at sideshow freaks aimed at the scars and burns that were scattered all over their bodies. Ninja were inordinately comfortable with their mutilated bodies because they were the norm in the ninja world; such civilian reactions reminded them that their way of life was not as natural as it usually felt. And nobody wanted to face that realization while they were trying to relax with a nice long soak. But Hinata didn't have much of an option here, since according to Naruto-kun, Jiraiya-sama tended to avoid kunoichi bathhouses in order to avoid the pummeling enraged kunoichi would surely mete out to a peeping tom. Apparently, in the interest of minimizing bodily damage, Jiraiya-sama tended to favor civilian spots since, considering how much harm angry civilian women could inflict, he didn't want to think about what a group of raging kunoichi would do to him.

So here she was, trying to think of a plausible lie to explain away a fairly inconspicuous scar. It was so light, a shinobi would never even have noticed such a scar. She probably had a few more like that over her body. Ninja were so used to such slight marks that often they were nothing more than another physical characteristic. Nobody thought any more of the scar across Iruka-sensei's nose than they did of his brown hair. Ninja only gawked at such things when went beyond the pale; like Ibiki-san's riddled skull. Or like Inuzuka Hana's burn-marred back and left arm.

The first time Hinata had seen Hana after that awful day in the Konoha Hospital when Hana had been on the brink of death with all those third-degree burns and Hinata had realized that she _never_ wanted to be a medic-nin, Hinata hadn't been able to look her in the eyes. Hinata _knew_ she was being ridiculous; she'd only been there to observe in the ER, it had nothing to do with her. But irrationally, she had somehow felt that it was all her fault that Hana would have those terrible scars for the rest of her life. That because she hadn't taken training as a medic-nin seriously, she was somehow complicit in Hana's injuries.

That meeting was all the worse because for the first time ever since she had met Inuzuka Hana, the woman was wearing a full-sleeved shirt under her jounin vest. But Hana was a much braver and stronger kunoichi than Hinata was. Because the next time she'd seen Hana _after that_, she had been sporting a revealing backless one-sleeved top. The discolored skin of her burned left arm and back were bare for the world to see. And what a sight it was! Hinata didn't think she'd ever seen such an intricately beautiful tattoo before. Her entire arm and back were covered in shades of dark blue, laced with hints of green and red sketching abstract and floral patterns; it covered all the burn scars, or rather, it turned them into art since they made a nice contrast against the rich dark colors of the tattoo. The most stunning part of it had been the large wolf-dog that been tattooed in the center of her back. The wolf seemed to span her entire back and draped one large paw languidly over her shoulder, upper-arm, and collar bone in a gesture that was at once protective and fierce. The image had been stylized in such a way that the wolf looked like it would leap out from Hana's back at any moment, springing at the viewer. It was breathtaking, really. _(1)_

_Well_, Hinata though, _at least I only have to explain away a few faint scars._ This inquisition, coupled with the close call with her eyes earlier, made an uncharitable part of her mind wonder if only nosy women frequented the Steamy Leaf Bathhouse. She managed to stutter out something about a childhood accident that was vague and mumbled enough that she hoped it would deter the woman from asking any more prying questions. Then, quickly finishing scrubbing herself—she was actually clean anyway—she hurried over to the large pool. Here it was steamy enough that no one would remark on or even notice her few smattering of scars.

The rest of the hour passed without incident. Which also, unfortunately, meant that she did not catch sight of a certain perverted hermit. Today looked like a failure, and she had to be going soon. As Hinata walked out of the tub, she felt like all her skin was completely waterlogged. If this went on for a regular basis, she might turn into a raisin before they managed to extract the secrets behind sealing from Jiraiya-sama. Well, she had said she'd do anything to get information on seals, hadn't she? In that light, becoming pruney by sitting in a bathhouse for an hour and a half each morning until they intercepted their target didn't seem that much of a sacrifice.

She couldn't help dragging her feet a bit as she walked back to the changing room. As soon as she got out, she was supposed to meet Naruto-kun in a park near the bathhouse. Hinata toweled her hair dry in a resigned sort of way. She'd already decided on her course of action, hadn't she? It was time to get it over with. She walked out of the bathhouse with all the resignation of someone being led to an execution.

The park was fairly deserted this early in the morning, and she soon caught sight of Naruto-kun in his characteristic orange. He'd taken to wandering around without his usual jacket since it was so hot, but the pants were still the same bright shade and contrasted starkly against his plain black t-shirt, which in turn contrasted starkly against his bright yellow hair. Knowing what she had to tell him, it almost hurt watching Naruto-kun lean against a tree as he waited for her.

Any second now, Hinata felt she might collapse entirely, here Naruto-kun was already doing her a huge favor by helping her with this cursed seal information gathering thing and she was repaying his friendship with such awful behavior. She hadn't even stood up to her father for Naruto-kun's sake! Of course she couldn't do it—standing up to him would arouse his suspicion and that was the last thing she wanted, but that was just an excuse wasn't it? Her reasons didn't matter, because when it came down to it, she was treating Naruto-kun in the same callous way so many people seemed to treat him.

Somehow, she managed to stumblingly recount the entire awful interview with her father, but it was all so stammeringly told, disjointed, and interspersed with so many apologies, she wasn't sure if she was making any sense at all. She concluded wretchedly with, "Um, s-so, you see, c-could you maybe i-if it's n-not too much trouble maybe s-s-spar with m-me s-some-sometime?"

She received a confused frown for her pains. "Wait, so let me get this straight. Your dad thinks I'm like a bad influence or something and so you said we weren't friends, just sparring partners?" At her hesitant little nod of confirmation, he gave her a sad little smile that was almost a grimace. _Well_, Naruto thought with a touch of bitterness, _at least they're acknowledging me as a ninja. _But he'd show that smug Hyuuga bastard that he was good enough to be friends with his daughter anyway. A stray cynical part of him wondered if that even really mattered. A habit of distrust bred during a childhood of neglect could not be set aside so readily. He'd thought Moon wanted to be friends with him. But did this Hyuuga Hinata want to be friends with him if she was willing to toss him aside so easily? Was she just using him as so many villagers like Mizuki-sensei, who had pretended to care about him and had tricked him into stealing the Hokage's forbidden scroll, had tried to do?

Hinata didn't know exactly how it happened, she'd never thought she was particularly intuitive, but on seeing that almost miserable expression on Naruto-kun's face, she felt as if she'd just suddenly had a flash of understanding. _He thinks that I think his only value is as a ninja._ And if he really believed that then she had made a complete mess of things. And since she was the one who had bungled things so badly, it was her duty to set it all aright. No, she couldn't possibly let Naruto-kun think this way. Firming her resolve, Hinata forced herself to look him straight in the eyes, for the first time in this entire stilted conversation and said, without hesitation, without a single doubt clouding her speech, "Yes, that's what I told my father, because I didn't want to upset him, Naruto-kun. But it's not true." Seeing Naruto's gaze riveted on her face, as if she was saying something extraordinary, the courage and determination that had rushed through Hinata and allowed her to voice all that, began to ebb. She looked away, and hesitated. "I, I had h-hoped that, that we could maybe be f-f-friends."

Naruto didn't know what to make of this girl, equal parts shy and determined and just plain _weird_. He couldn't even really tell if she wanted to be friends with him or if she was just using him. But then again, hadn't she lied to her own family, just so she could be friends with him? Naruto wasn't dumb; just because he didn't have a family, he didn't think they were all perfect like he used to imagine they were when he was a kid. From personal experience, he knew her family downright _sucked_. The girl's cousin had tried to kill her after all, and they had this messed-up family civil-war thing going which was even worse than that. He knew all that, and he also knew, that in spite of all this, she didn't hate any of them. Sure, she wasn't happy with things the way they were—hell, he would have thought she was crazy if she was happy with things the way they were—but she still cared about them enough that she wanted to change things. Yeah, he didn't think families were perfect just because he was an orphan, but because he was an orphan, he knew they were damn important.

And when he had talked to her that day they'd come up with the Capture the Pervert Plan, he knew just how important changing the Hyuuga was to her; he also knew, from that talk, how much she wanted to avoid drawing attention to herself within her clan. He might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but even he could tell that if her clan started poking around and found out about her wanting to change that Main/Branch crap, her plan would die even before it was born. So yeah, Naruto would really hate creeping around like he was some kind of dirty secret—and wasn't that funny, because, considering the Fox, he _was_ a dirty secret she didn't know about, wasn't he?—that had to be kept from her family. And part of him wanted to go right up to that tight-ass Hyuuga clan head, whatever his name was, and tell him straight up that he was going to be friends with Hinata and if the man didn't like it, tough. But pulling a stunt like that would be like putting a huge warning sign her back that said "Caution: Suspicious Behavior." So she'd lied to her family and said that he wasn't her friend, and maybe he shouldn't trust her. But she'd lied because really she cared about them and as strange as it was, it looked like she actually cared about his feelings too.

Yeah, she was just plain weird, wasn't she? But he liked people like that.

"Yeah, we can be friends."

* * *

When Hinata returned from the Steamy Leaf Bathhouse for her daily session of training in how the Hyuuga clan ran, she could still feel the pruney ridges along her fingers from soaking in a bathhouse for over an hour. She found the day's session particularly troubling. She always disliked it when she ended up with Haruki-san. He was a retired ninja from the Main house who had been something of a legend in his youth but was now complacent and corpulent in his old age. Of course he was never blunt about—had there ever _been_ a blunt Hyuuga?—but he made it clear in every session that he thought instructing Hinata was a waste of his time, since she never would be selected as the next clan head anyway. 

Today, Haruki-san had explained to her in detail the process by which the fate of Branch-family members were decided. The children were branded at a young age, usually while they were still toddlers. If in the first five years of their lives they showed any aptitude for chakra control, they began training in the ninja arts, whether they wanted to or not. Only exceptional ninja from the Branch family could marry into the Main, which had been the case for her parents. Hinata shuddered inside, wondering what that must have been like for her mother. Her father certainly wasn't a monster, but Hinata couldn't help thinking that no matter how much her mother had loved her husband, hadn't it chilled her to know that if he wanted to, he could have killed her with a thought? The possibility of intermarriage and the hope that their children might be spared the seal made ninja the most desired profession. The rest of the Branch family members, depending on their social standing, were essentially assigned to their tasks as servants, ranging from cooks to accountants. Often, even details such as who would work where were pre-determined by the Elders of the Main and Branch council.

Coming out of Haruki-san's office, where he preferred to sit while lecturing her—most of the others who tutored her and Neji-niisan and Hanabi in these sessions at least walked about, showing where certain tasks were performed or bringing in other family members who were experts in the area for more detailed explanations—Hinata felt tired even though it was only 9 AM and she still had a full day of working at the Diplomacy Corps ahead of her. She half hoped the Hokage wouldn't have any meetings unimportant enough that Hinata would have to sit in on them today. Walking toward her room, she saw her sister standing half-hidden in the shadow of a wooden support.

Remembering yet another secret project she had been working on in hopes of trying to improve her relationship with her sister—and wasn't she turning into quite the schemer?—Hinata called out, "H-Hanabi!" Part of her wondered if she should add "-chan" at the end of that, like she used to when Hanabi was really little. Self-preservation instinct, however, assured her that addressing her proud younger sister as "Hanabi-chan" would lead to a quick and painful death. "I, um, h-have something f-for you."

Hanabi was irritated to see her sister less than morose after her lecture from their father last night and almost stalked away on the spot. Usually, she couldn't care less what Hinata was up to, but that last statement had piqued her curiosity. What could Hinata possibly have for her? She leveled a questioning glance at her sister and followed silently as Hinata entered her room, which was just as sparse as any other room in the Hyuuga compound. The Branch maid had already come in and cleared away Hinata's futon, a trunk full of clothes rested under the window, and the closet door was closed. The only other piece of furniture was a rather large low table that served as a desk, which displayed a rather un-Hyuugalike clutter. Stacks of paper, piles of books, an upended canvas satchel that seemed to be used to the abuse inflicted by carrying to many books, and piles of various writing implements littered its surface. Hanabi watched with a disgusted sneer as Hinata rooted through the mess, looking for something. At last she pulled out a dull green copybook.

Holding the cheap little notebook out to Hanabi like an offering, her sister continued, "They're stories about our mother. I copied them out of the library archives for you."

Hinata hoped that Hanabi would see it as something of a peace offering. The idea had come to her the first time she'd entered the Hyuuga Main library, when she had shuffled through the journals in the backroom hoping to find a private memoir kept by her mother. She'd been disappointed in that, but she had found, reading the journals and diaries of others that, considering her important role as wife of the clan heir and then clan head, her mother featured in quite a few stories and happenings that others had recorded. By all accounts, she was a kind and gentle woman as well as an exceptionally talented kunoichi. Each time she found a reference to her mother in those accounts, Hinata felt as if she had stumbled across an unlooked for but precious treasure. Those stories had meant so much to her, and she had been six when their mother died; surely Hanabi, who couldn't remember their mother at all since she had been so young at the time, would treasure them all the more. With this in mind, she had slowly and painstakingly, copied out each entry that any previous Hyuuga had made that mentioned their mother even in passing.

Hanabi struck away Hinata's hand angrily, knocking the notebook out of the older girl's hand. It flopped uselessly to the ground, opening up to page filled with meticulously neat handwriting. Hanabi was fuming inside and it was only by exerting the bit of self-control that she had left in the face of all that anger that allowed her to hit the book and not Hinata herself. So her sister had to rub her face into the fact that she didn't have access to the Main library? Wasn't it bad enough she flaunted her access so regularly by holing herself in that library practically every night? What would she do next? Give subtle hints about how she expected Hanabi would soon be marked for the Branch house? It was anger laced liberally with fear. She knew it was ludicrous to think that her pathetic sister would be chosen over her, but if she were…

Hanabi couldn't believe she'd allowed Hinata's foolishness to goad her into such shameful behavior. Furious at her sister for making her lose control of herself, Hanabi gave Hinata a disdainful glare. Really, it was all Hinata's fault anyway. It was _always_ Hinata's fault. "If you have time to waste bragging about your access to the library, then spend it on training." As she walked out the room, she turned just at the doorway, and threw back, "And you look ridiculous in that get-up." She hoped that stung.

"W-Wait, Hanabi-chan!" Damn, she'd said the "-chan," hadn't she? She must have a death wish. But none of that mattered right now. It hurt to see Hanabi toss aside that notebook as if it was worthless. As she had carefully copied out the stories in her neatest handwriting, Hinata had felt as if she was building memories of her mother that she never had been able to build because her mother had died so young. She had even added some of her own clearer childhood memories of her mother to the account. The book was infused with every feeling she had for the woman that she barely remembered but still love so much. "I, I just w-wanted you to have this fragment of our mother, since she loved you so much."

Hanabi wasn't anyone's fool. "Yeah, right. She died when I was born, how could she love me? She didn't even know who I was! Keep your sappy lies to yourself." Such a stupid argument was below her dignity. She wouldn't embroil herself in this any further. This time, she really would leave her sister to her foolishness.

Hinata didn't think she'd ever been quite this shocked. The surprise took every other consideration out of her head. She walked up to her sister and dragged her bodily back to her desk. "How can you say that! Of course she loved you! Don't you know how you got your name, Hanabi-chan?" Hinata couldn't believe that no one had ever told Hanabi about it. She herself had only been six at the time, but the memory of her mother continuously poring for hours, for days over sheets of paper as she tried to come up with the perfect name for her unborn daughter stood vivid in her mind. In fact, ever since the Hyuuga medic-nin had used his byakugan to inform them that the child would be a girl, her mother had set about eagerly making up lists of names, choosing out furniture, making impossibly small babyclothes.

That her sister could be so ignorant of their mother's love shook Hinata to the core. Of course her younger sister could not remember on her own, she was too young. But to think no one had told her. To think that she, Hinata, hadn't told her…What an awful older sister she was! She wouldn't let another minute pass by with her sister unaware of just how much their mother had loved Hanabi and looked forward to her birth.

Hinata pulled out a sheet of blank paper, a beaten up calligraphy brush and an inkstone from somewhere in the mess on her desk. Without waiting to hear Hanabi's response to her question, she began explaining how according to Hyuuga tradition, the children of the clan head were always named with the character "hi"日 meaning sun in their names; usually it was the first character. She quickly jotted down Hinata 日向, Hiashi 日脚, Hizashi 日差, as examples.

"But mother loved you so much, even before you were born, that she insisted on putting an element from her own name into yours as well, and she wanted to put the part that came from her first. To her the fact that you were _her_ daughter was just as important as the fact that you were the child of the Hyuuga clan head. So you got the日 'sun' from the Hyuuga Main family tradition, and 花 'hana', meaning 'flower', from mother. Because you see, mother's given name was Hyuuga Sazanka."

Hinata slowly pronounced out "Sa-zan-ka" as she wrote each of the characters 山茶花. "You see, 'mountain', 'tea', 'flower': Sa-zan-ka. By themselves, none of the characters is exceptionally pretty, but put together, they make Sazanka, one of the most beautiful camellia of all."

Then, writing out the characters for Hanabi's name, 花日 she continued, "So she took the last character from her name, 'ka,' which means flower and made it the first character in yours—'hana'. Usually 'Hanabi' is written as 花火 , 'fire-flower,' but since mother used the kanji for 'sun' instead of 'fire' and made your name 花日, she called you her little sunflower. She said she wanted you to be as much her child as father's," Hinata said wistfully. She remembered being a little jealous at the time, of how much her mother had loved her unborn daughter.

Hinata did not elaborate for Hanabi that her own name, Hyuuga Hinata, had been chosen by their father with the same exact characters for both first and last name, 向日向日 because he had expected his heir to be strong. Although pronounced differently, written down, Hinata's first name was just a reflection of her last name. There was nothing in Hinata's name except the Hyuuga clan. Their mother hadn't fought to put a piece of herself in Hinata's name as she had done for Hanabi. "So you see," she ended a little sadly, "she loved you very much."

No, she didn't say it, but it was there in the air between them that some of Hinata's last memories of their mother were tinted with the kind of common envy an older sibling felt at a younger one's birth, a doubt that perhaps their mother had loved her younger sister more. That their mother had died so soon after Hanabi was born meant that that doubt would never really dissolve. The clearest memories Hinata had of her mother were those in which she was preoccupied and excited about the birth of her youngest child. Hinata felt another sharp pang of guilt; at least she had had the memories. Hanabi didn't even have those, and Hinata had been an awful enough older sister that she had never shared them before.

Hanabi was Hyuuga enough to read between the lines and see both Hinata's guilt and sense of loss. What she couldn't figure out was why her sister would share all this with her. It was clear that only Hanabi benefited from the sharing of these memories. Why bring herself pain by doing something that held no advantage for herself?

She was weak. She was weak. Her sister was weak. Hanabi kept repeating the words in her head over and over with a desperation that hinted she was afraid that they weren't quite true. She had to be weak. Why else would she waste time like this _worrying_ about Hanabi? Hanabi was strong, much stronger than her pathetic sister. She didn't _need_ her worry. Did she think Hanabi would be nice to her for the sake of some happy memories that Hanabi didn't even remember for herself? Is that what she was after?

"I didn't ask for a damn calligraphy lesson," Hanabi snapped at last.

Crestfallen, Hinata lowered her head and mumbled an apology to the floor. She bent to pick up the discarded copybook, but stopped herself when she saw Hanabi reaching for it as well. The younger girl didn't say anything, or even bother looking in Hinata's direction. She merely picked up the green notebook and walked out of the room. But Hinata could see under the attempt at appearing adult and nonchalant, a sense of genuine longing in Hanabi's face.

* * *

The next day after dinner, Hanabi confronted Hinata in her room. She glared imperiously and although she opened and closed her mouth several times, it seemed she could not figure out quite what to say. She looked like she was trying to find the words to express something she had never allowed herself to feel: loneliness. 

Hinata, taking pity on her emotionally-parched sister,—for Hinata knew quite a bit about loneliness, didn't she?—she softly invited her to sit down. A Branch maid brought in tea, adding an extra cup at Hinata's direction, and the two sisters settled down at the low table, sitting side by side. Slowly, hesitantly, she began telling Hanabi every single scrap of memory, every half-remembered story she had ever heard about their mother, Hyuuga Sazanka.  
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_To be continued..._

* * *

_(1) I was imagining one of those elaborate and beautiful Japanese tattoos, the kind that are often associated with the Yakuza._


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: I should either be grading papers, writing my own papers, or doing my reading, but instead, for all my wonderful readers, I decided to update instead. Sorry for the long wait on this chapter…But I'd written most of it up a couple months ago and then I lost the file and it took a lot of effort to make myself try to write it up all over again, especially because I kept feeling that I couldn't remember everything that I had before…Anyway, here it is, a long chapter, but a little dull I'm afraid.

As always, thanks to all my wonderful reviewers; special thanks to the anonymous reviewers to whom I can't respond individually:** XL **and **Velt**

_**To all the lovely people who put this story on their alerts and favorites list: Please review and let me know what you think.**_**  
**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

* * *

_Steamy Leaf Operation: Day 2 Wednesday_

Having learned from the gaffes of her first day at the bathhouse stakeout, Hinata decided to refine certain aspects of the plan. This time around, she had the insight to disguise herself subtly in order to avoid arousing the suspicion of civilian women. She wanted to avoid using too much chakra in case it would alert a shinobi as skilled as Jiraiya-sama must be of her presence. So instead of using a henge, she slipped in colored contacts into her eyes in the changing room of the bathhouse. It had taken her an embarrassingly long amount of time to decide on the color. At first, she'd wanted to try something beautiful like Sakura-chan's sparkling green or Ino-san's frosty blue, but then had chided herself for her foolishness. The aim wasn't to try to make herself pretty, but rather to be as inconspicuous as possible, and so she had resigned herself to an unremarkable dark brown which would attract the least notice and commentary.

As for her faint scars scattered across her body, the make-up concealers and such that Ino-san had shown her during the impromptu makeup lesson wouldn't be much use in the soapy, steamy environment of a bathhouse, and so Hinata had no choice but to rely on henge to hide those. She hoped the illusion was light enough that the chakra it required wouldn't be that noticeable to a ninja busy ogling other women. For some reason, it did not occur to her that Jiraiya-sama might ogle _her_. If it had, she probably would have been much less complacent about the whole Steamy Leaf Operation.

Again, she sat and sat in the bath but the target did not show.

She sighed in disappointment while rubbing her pruny fingers against each other as she headed out of the bathhouse to meet up with Naruto-kun covertly. They meandered about the same deserted park as they talked.

Seeing the disappointed look on the face of the girl beside him, Naruto slapped a hand on her shoulder and said with as much energy as he could, "Don't worry about it, Hinata-chan! We'll catch him for sure!" He even gave her the good guy smile that Thick Brows was always going on about.

Naruto-kun's enthusiasm was contagious. Hinata smiled. But it faded quickly as she realized there was still something unpleasant that had to be gotten through with.

"N-Naruto-kun, I, I was um wondering a-about those s-s-spars…"

"Yeah?" He waited, but it seemed like nothing more was forthcoming. Sometimes, he didn't think he'd ever be able to understand girls. From the way she was looking at him, it was clear that she was asking him something. But she hadn't come out and actually asked him anything! Jeez. Sakura-chan was just like this too. Except that she'd probably be swatting his head by now.

"W-when do you think…"

Huh. She'd trailed off again. But then, as she stood their patiently yet hesitantly waiting for him to answer, the silences and gaps in her conversation fit together in his head at last and he finally figured out her question. "Ooooohhhhhh!" he drew out the syllable in sudden understanding. "Yeah, we should set up a time for those."

As she nodded in agreement, he wondered why she hadn't just come out and said it straight. Come to think of it, now, Sakura-chan wasn't like this _at all_. She usually just said what she wanted outright. Well, at least to him. He remembered, though, back when they were genin how Sakura-chan had her own half-spoken statements and half-asked questions for Sasuke. But when Naruto had asked her once why she was always so uncharacteristically shy around that bastard, Sakura-chan had promptly punched him in the head.

During the long and at times tedious day of his training trip, he'd somehow ended up asking the Pervert Hermit about it—after all, he'd figured the self-proclaimed expert on women and romance might have some clue. Of course he'd found out that the old pervert was full of nothing but hot air. He'd leered at Naruto and in that perverted old man voice of his said, "Oh, it's like that is it? Don't you see, kid, that's how all the ladies talk to me! That's how a woman behaves with a man she _wants_." He'd said the last word with such a lecherous look on his face and suggestively waggled his eyebrows that Naruto had felt his face heat up in embarrassment then and could feel it heating up now at the thought of it. Ugh. He hadn't needed to think about Sakura-chan and Sasuke like that! And he _definitely _didn't need to think about the perverted old man like that! He hadn't need it then and he didn't need it now.

And there was no_ way _this train of thought could have anything at _all _to do with Hinata. But with her hair still damp and skin still flushed from the heat of the bathhouse, Naruto couldn't help imagining her in the bath--all pale smooth skin and fine hair clustering in moist tendrils around her face. For the first time, Naruto was really beginning to understand where the old pervert got the urge to peep in on women. _Mind out of gutter_, Naruto chanted to himself, _mind out of gutter_.

It was odd but fascinating, Hinata thought, to see Naruto-kun blushing. She wondered what he was thinking about. "Um, Naruto-kun?"

He laughed embarrassedly and in order to deflect any questions that would end with her smacking him, he blurted out, "How about this weekend? I've got some training with Kakashi-sensei and stuff for the next couple days."

* * *

_Steamy Leaf Operation: Day 3 Thursday_

More of the same. They held their stakeout at the bathhouse, got no results and that was that.

Instead of dwelling on the failure they had met with so far, Hinata threw herself into reading the Hyuuga journals. After all, she told herself firmly, it wasn't like Jiraya-sama was the _only_ way for her to figure things out. It was just a matter of resolution, and she had resolved to find an answer even if it killed her.

Oddly enough, while some of the journals mentioned in passing and quite obliquely how the cursed seal could be put _on_, none mentioned how it could ever be possibly taken _off_. No matter, she would just keep reading until she found it.

Besides, it gave her something else to think about instead of spending her time agonizing about the humiliation of having to put Naruto-kun through these farcical spars so she could disguise their friendship from prying Hyuuga eyes. Of course, a small part of her wanted to do it, wanted to test out her strength and ability against someone as amazing as Naruto-kun, but her nervous, jittery, insecurity crushed that small eager part rather ruthlessly.

* * *

_Steamy Leaf Operation: Day 4 Friday_

More of the same. They held their stakeout at the bathhouse, got no results and that was that.

Hinata had always thought of herself as a patient person, but this self-imposed mission was teaching her that she wasn't quite as patient as she had assumed she was. Even Naruto-kun seemed to be bearing up better than she was—of course he was irritated and would grimace in frustration every time he mentioned the "Pervert Hermit," but he didn't seem so downright impatient and agitated about the whole thing like she was. Just the fact that Jiraiya-sama had been in town for at least four days and they had yet to catch sight of him was driving her up the walls. How was she to even begin to lay out how she would implement all the intricate plans she had for the Hyuuga Main and Branch reunification _if she could not even get past step one_, namely research.

It was this thought that haunted her, that destroyed her peace. No doubt it showed in her work. No less than three people had asked her if something was the matter. Of course they were all coworkers from the Diplomacy Corps—no one from the Hyuuga would enquire about something as inconsequential as her state of mind. She had started skipping her lunches with Sakura in order to make up for the research time for the Diplomacy Corps she was missing with the early morning stakeout and with all the extra reading of Hyuuga journals she was doing. But it felt like it was all an impossible game of catch up and she just _knew_ she would fail.

What made the entire situation all the more frustrating was that it was almost within her grasp. The Legendary Hermit was in Konoha but had yet to be encountered. Generations of journals kept by the Hyuuga were hers to access but she had yet to stumble across one that gave her any sort of hint.

Shaking off such pessimistic thoughts, Hinata brought her wavering attention back to the journal in her hands. No matter it was late at night and no matter she would have to wake in just a handful of hours to get ready for the next day, she would not go to bed until she finished this journal, she told herself firmly. It had been kept by one Hyuuga Ryuunoskue, an elder of the Main House who died shortly after the Nine-Tails' attack on the village. His writing style was repetitive and verbose, making Hinata feel like she was wading through meaningless sentences for a brief glimpse every now and then of sense. Her eyes were starting to glaze over. This journal was just so _dull_:

_And while some may claim it fortuitous, there is no doubt within me that those actions which the plebian Villagers lack the intellect to fully comprehend were without doubt detrimental to the Village. For though the destruction and carnage of the Nine-Tails has been brought to an end, they celebrate too soon thinking that the disaster has been averted entirely, whereas, in fact, the actions of the Fourth in the sealing of that demon have plunged the Leaf into one of the greatest crises it may ever face…_

Her eyes continued moving over the page, but she knew she wasn't actually paying attention to the enraged rambling of some cantankerous Hyuuga elder dead for over a decade until her gaze lit on the word "sealing". She'd been looking for it so eagerly in every single journal entry she had read so far that I seemed to stand out in bold for her. Hinata shook her head to clear the sleepiness that was invading her mind and focused her full attention on the book in her hands:

…_perhaps committing the event to writing is an unwise course on my part, but I never could agree with the Third's sanctions that the actions of that day never be mentioned again, that future generations, that all our offspring, be kept in ignorance of the evil that lurks within their midst. No, I shall not preserve the silence the Third insists on, and these pages at least will bear testament to my disapproval of his decision for I believe it would behoove our Village to be ever aware of the danger we have laid ourselves open to since the moment the Fourth so brashly sealed the Demon Fox. _

The Nine-Tails fox had been sealed? All the sleepiness seemed to leave Hinata, she sat up straighter at the low table she used as a desk in her bedroom, and took another sip of the tea that had long since gone cold.

Of course they had learned in the Academy that the Fourth had vanquished the Demon Fox and saved the Village, but the textbooks never did go into details on just _how_ he had done it. At the time, Hinata had thought it odd, considering that if something like that ever _did_ happen again, wouldn't it be a good idea for them to know how to deal with the situation? But then, whenever the subject came up, everyone would be so caught up in how heroic the Fourth had been that somehow the question of _how_ he had accomplished his impossible task always fell to the wayside. And she had hardly been the type to ask questions in class since she wanted to avoid drawing attention to herself at all costs.

To think, the Fourth had been powerful enough to actually seal a Demon so malignant and strong! But what had he sealed the Nine-Tails Fox in? No doubt, it was well-guarded, but still, any invading Village could bring the Leaf down from within by simply unleashing that Demon, which although sealed, was still around somewhere. It sent shivers down her spine to think that maybe in some hidden vault somewhere in the Hokage Tower, there was an object that reeked with the sheer malignant will and evil of one of the strongest Demons the world had ever known. To think that something that malevolent was still present somewhere in the heart of the Village…it chilled her. Now thoroughly awake, Hinata read on.

_And now in the guise of a feckless child that Demon more terrible than the pits of Hell will move around in the Village, learning our vulnerabilities and weaknesses and we can do nothing to protect ourselves from the monster since the Third, still mourning the loss of the Fourth, is blinded to the danger of letting that insidious menace free rein. For having sealed the Demon within the child, and the child having manifested his demonic nature physically in the whisker marks upon his face, surely the only logical course is to now send the demonic child, while he is still too helpless to defend himself, along with Fox he harbors to the Hell they both deserve. But the Third listens to no reason, threatens the Clan when we move against his decision and attempt to do away with the child, and as if to mock our fears outright, embraces the Demon held at bay by nothing more than the fragile seals on the stomach of a child who is surely himself nothing more than demon spawn hiding behind deceptively innocent blue eyes…_

Hinata dropped the book as if it had burned her. Her world was tilting. Suddenly, all sorts of pieces fell into place and Hinata's entire understanding of the universe shattered and then slowly, piece by terrible piece it reformed into something alien and unrecognizable. The mindless burning hatred the villagers directed towards a small sunny-haired child, her father's disapproval, Naruto-kun's abnormal chakra stamina, the account of the fight against Gaara of the Sand that she had heard about, the red chakra around Naruto-kun as he fought Neji-niisan in that first chuunin exam and so many other incongruous fragments seemed to suddenly make an awful, heart-wrenching sense.

She felt she was going to be sick. Or maybe faint. She just felt so lightheaded all of a sudden. She gripped the edge of the table to steady herself and gazed off at nothing until the ringing in her ears faded. But still, she felt if she tried to move too suddenly the precious balance holding the universe together would collapse.

Her thoughts were reeling like a flock of magpies, all cawing and jabbering at once. She could not make sense of any of them and felt that trying to make sense of all of them might destroy her currently fragile hold on reality. Taking a deep breath, Hinata began the mediation exercises her father had taught her when she was two years old, even before she could really talk, in preparation for chakra practice as she grew. She counted her breaths, slowly, so slowly, until the world around her dissolved and her tumultuous thoughts and emotions loosened their choking hold on her one by one. After she felt she had regained some of her equilibrium, she let the emotions back, again one by one, so she could look at them separately and perhaps understand the knotted, painful jumble that they had become.

Fear. That was the first emotion that came back to her. Fear…not _of_ the Fox and not for herself or the Village, but _for _Naruto-kun. Because unless Hyuuga Ryuunosuke had gone so senile in his later years that he had imagined that entire account, there was no other way to interpret what she had read: to save the Leaf, the Fourth had sealed the Demon Fox in a child, and that child was without doubt Uzumaki Naruto, who had whisker marks on his face and innocent blue eyes. She discarded impatiently the bigoted Ryuunosuke's belief that Naruto-kun _was_ the Demon Fox himself. She didn't even have to consider rationally why that couldn't be true—she just _knew_, more surely than she had ever known anything in her entire life. She was afraid of what the sealing might be doing to Naruto-kun. It must be painful and dangerous in the extreme, and a sickening fear about the danger he was in clenched like a fist around her stomach.

A part of her wondered idly why she didn't feel at all scared for the Village in case the Demon Fox ever escaped the seal; the next emotion that returned to her made it clear:

Reassurance. Security. Protection. Knowing that Naruto-kun was guarding the Village from the Demon Fox, and even though it made her worry for him, it also reassured her that he would protect them all no matter what. She had worried when she imagined some faceless jounin and chuunin guarding a secret object that contained the sealed Nine-Tails, but knowing that _Naruto-kun_ was guarding the Fox within himself reassured her, even as it made her worry for him. He would keep them all safe. She knew this instinctually.

Sorrow. Although certainly not the smartest kunoichi of her year, Hyuuga Hinata was a smart girl in her own right and it did not take her more than a heartbeat to piece together Hyuuga Ryuunosuke's blind hatred of Naruto with the treatment the boy had faced at the hands of the Villagers even when he had been nothing more than a small child. It crushed her heart; she could not make herself dwell on it, at least not right now when the revelation was still raw and new and painful for fear that she would drown in it.

Anger. At Hyuuga Ryuunoskue. At the Villagers. At the unfairness of life. At her father, whose probing questions about Naruto-kun were now starting to make a terrible sort of sense. At anyone who saw Naruto-kun as a _thing_—whether a weapon to be carefully kept, a demon to be feared, a monster to be killed, or a tool to be used.

Countless other emotions came back to her, but they were not as hard to deal with as the first few had been. The last one however, gave her pause. It almost threw her back into her initial panic.

Uncertainty. There were so many pieces to this puzzle she still did not know or understand. Apparently, this secret was well guarded, so who really knew the truth? Did all the adults know? Did the other ninja in their year? And the most disquieting thought of all, did _Naruto-kun_ know that he guarded them all against a Demon? If he didn't, was it her place to tell him? Was it her place to keep it from him? If he was unaware of the fact, would he be happier that way? But what if he did know? Would he want her to know as well? But if that were the case, wouldn't he have told her himself? So should she not let him know she knew? The questions spiraled out impossibly.

Somehow, it was four am and the summer sun was already sending out feeble rays of light and the sky was lightening to metallic shades of gray and blue as a precursor to the approaching dawn. Mindlessly, Hinata gathered her notes and books. Still lost in the maze of questions, she somehow managed to stumble over to the futon that the Branch maid had laid out for her hours ago, the evening before; somehow it felt much more time had elapsed since then, days, months, even years. Tired as she was, she could not sleep, unsure whether to bring the subject up with Naruto-kun, which she felt she _ought_ to if he didn't know he had the Demon Fox sealed within him or not to bring it up if he was aware of what his body harbored and obviously would not want to share such a painful and personal secret with her.

She spent a restless couple of hours before having to get up once more to prepare for her morning spar with Neji-niisan since even weekends were not enough of an excuse for him to let himself or her become slack in training. She washed her face and brushed her teeth methodically. And realized with a sick feeling of dread that she would have to face Naruto-kun that day since they had decided on their joke of "spar" for Saturday. She somehow got through her morning spar, unaware of the faintly concerned look her cousin sent her as she performed even worse than usual at the jyuuken due to her distraction.

The early morning hours rushed by and before she knew it, was almost time for her to meet Naruto-kun. And so she left, heading towards the Training Grounds, still unsure on how she could possibly look him in the eyes while she was filled with such turmoil.

* * *

_The Day of the Spar: Saturday_

Even if she hadn't been so anxious about her recent discovery, Hinata would certainly have arrived at the Training Grounds half an hour early since being late was one of those things that made her uneasy. She paced across Training Area 13—and wasn't that just perfect, considering her usual luck—nervously. She was as much a mess as she had been last night. What would she _do_?! It seemed like such an awful violation of Naruto-kun's privacy for her to even _know_…Miserably, she wished that Hyuuga Ryuunoskue had never been born.

Her frantic thoughts were interrupted by the approach of Naruto's no-nonsense tread, and soon she saw his figure breaking through the undergrowth of the trees surrounding the clearing that she was in the process of rendering barren with her incessant pacing.

"Hey, Hinata-chan?" Naruto-asked with a slight frown marring his forehead. Hinata wondered when exactly he had started calling her with the suffix "-chan" and how she could possibly have failed to notice! She had been so caught up in all the schemes she and Naruto-kun were becoming embroiled in together, that somehow, impossibly she had let the momentous occasion of him considering her a close enough friend to addressing her with "-chan" slip…This realization of her self-absorption multiplied her guilt all the more when he asked, "You look kind of tired. Are you feeling all right? Do you still want to spar?"

She could not bring herself to look in his eyes, somehow afraid that he would see everything there.

When the girl in front of him still did not respond, Naruto reached out a hand and touched her shoulder, shaking her lightly and repeating her name. She flinched visibly at his touch, but at last forced herself to face him. And her heart could have broken at the wary look in his eyes, as if he was expecting rejection at any moment. In that instant, she was suddenly, undeniably certain that Naruto-kun knew exactly what awful monster he held within himself. Nothing else could have put such wariness in his eyes.

She was also convinced in that instant that she could not let him know she had discovered his secret until he told her himself, if he ever did. There was no doubt in her that he would not appreciate her knowing such an intimate detail of his very existence. To let him know she had stumbled on his secret, well, wouldn't it leave him feeling uncomfortable? Wouldn't it make him feel that the little bit of control he thought he had over this aspect of his life—the power to control the knowledge, to determine who he would confide in and who he wouldn't—had been stripped from him? No, she would never do him such an injustice. The fear that he might hate her for knowing his secret paled in comparison to her anguish over the powerlessness he would feel if she admitted her knowledge. It was his secret to share or not with her. She wished the knowledge of it out of her mind, but rationally knew it was impossible. All she could do was offer him her love silently and unobtrusively as she had always done, because for her, this revelation had, in the end, changed nothing.

It was strange to think that only a few days ago she had decided that she could never lie to Naruto-kun, because now it came to her quite easily. The half truth found its way to her lips without thought, without consideration, because it was, after all, partially true. "I'm just a little worried, Naruto-kun, since I'm not that good at taijutsu." The lie came so easily, so naturally that she didn't even stutter. She was turning out to be a much craftier girl than she had ever thought she was. Perhaps this was only logical since she would do anything for Naruto-kun, lie to her family, lie to him if it would protect him, protect her secrets and keep true to her ninja way, his ninja way. If she had lied to Naruto-kun last week about what she had told her father about their friendship, well, it would have been a self-serving lie. But this, this lie was entirely for his sake.

Naruto still hesitated—he knew there had to be more than this. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but the girl in front of him was not behaving like the usual Hinata. It was odd to think that he actually knew now what a "usual Hinata" was like. Well, if she wasn't going to tell him whatever it was that was bugging her, then she wasn't going to tell him. Satisfied with that piece of deduction, he asked, "Do you want to cancel then?"

Hinata hesitated, but to her credit, only for a few moments. It would be so easy here to say, "yes, can we cancel?" And then Naruto-kun wouldn't have to know directly just how bad of a ninja she really was. But wouldn't that too be a betrayal of her ninja way? Wasn't her aim to improve and not cower behind her inadequacies? _Besides_, a much more practical part of her mind insisted, _if Father _does_ have Hyuuga spies trailing me, I better make my reason look legitimate. I better make it look real or else the game is up and then…what was it Sakura-chan always says…oh yes! 'the shit will really hit the fan'_.

Squaring her shoulders in determination, in response, Hinata stepped back a foot or so from Naruto and stepped into a defensive position. It did not even occur to her to take the offensive.

Seeing the look of resolution on the face of the girl in front of him, it was now Naruto's turn to hesitate. She was just so small and delicate and the long flowing white fabric of her ninja outfit heightened that effect all the more. Heck, it looked like a strong wind would blow her away. How was he supposed to come at somebody like that with an uppercut? But the determined look in her eyes reminded him of another time when he had seen that same look, and not so long ago. He remembered her impassioned words to Konohamaru just a few weeks ago at Ichiraku when the hapless boy had somehow thought belittling the skills of kunoichi in front of a kunoichi would be a good idea. Really, sometimes, Naruto had to wonder if Konohamaru picked up _anything_ from the brilliant lessons Naruto generously gave the kid.

And Hinata had been so harsh then, when she thought Konohamaru was not taking kunoichi—was not taking her—seriously. Considering all the times in his life he hadn't been taken seriously, well, that was the last thing Naruto would do to someone who was obviously trying their hardest. It would be an insult to turn down this spar now just because she looked fragile as porcelain, just because she was girl, and just because he didn't want to hurt her. It was a startling moment of clarity, really, because he saw that just like he wanted his own strength and skill acknowledged, well, she did too.

Before he could change his mind, Naruto rushed her. With a graceful half-twist, she simply stepped out of his way. That really got him going—it was the same irritating avoidance tactic Kakashi-sensei used. Well, he wouldn't stand for it. Much more decisively this time, Naruto charged at her again.

Again, she leapt out of his way, and assumed a defensive stance. Damn it, he'd make her fight him. And so he kept going, cornering her until she had no choice but to strike back since evasion was no longer an option.

For someone so tiny, she sure could hit hard. Well, maybe hard wasn't the right word. That was reserved for Sakura-chan, after all. Only his pink-haired teammate and Granny could hit with that much force. No, in Hinata's case, it was more like she hit sharp. He knew it was strictly taijutsu and she wasn't using any of that Hyuuga-poking-people-with-chakra-in-your-fingers thing, but every time she struck him, the jab would focus a lot of force in a little area. In short, it hurt.

They both lost track of time, but after a while, Naruto noticed her movements becoming more sluggish, his hits getting in more and more often past her defenses. He could already see the ugly purple bruises forming against the delicate skin of her arms and it made him feel sort of awful. He'd taken care not to strike her face—the Pervert Hermit had told him in no uncertain terms that you _do not hit a girl's face_. Well, unless she was about to kill you and there was no other option. Then it was ok.

But he could tell she was tiring—stamina was definitely something she needed to work on. Come to think of it, she had already looked exhausted even before they had begun sparring. As she dodged another of his strikes, Naruto noticed the dark smudges circling her eyes, and the lines of tiredness around them. Looking at the awful purple bruising staining her upper arm, Naruto decided he didn't want to hurt her feelings on top of everything else. Yeah, she'd gotten hits in too, but not as many since she tended to attack a lot less, and besides that bastard fox would fix him up in a few hours. She'd be stuck with her bruises and sore muscles for days. Even though she was breathing hard, she didn't look like she was going to call for even a break. It made him smile. Hinata-chan was something else.

Naruto pulled back. "Hey, Hinata-chan, I'm feeling kinda beat. Let's call it a day."

Hinata let her hands drop to her thighs as her body bent a little and she took in long deep breaths. The lack of sleep, on top of getting the pulp beat out of her this morning by Neji-niisan was taking its toll on her. But when she glanced up, it looked like Naruto-kun had just barely broken a sweat. All of a sudden, she was filled with a terrible shame. She'd really gotten caught up in the fight—none of her sparring partners had ever show this much enthusiasm, this much _enjoyment_ in what they were doing. It was a pleasure, really, to be training with Naruto-kun, so much so that she'd forgotten her embarrassment, had forgotten how pathetic she was at taijutsu. But all the humiliation came flooding back, then, as she watched him standing there with ease looking only a little scruffed up while she gasped in deep breaths of air.

She hung her head in shame, her bangs hiding her eyes. "I, I'm sorry N-Naruto-kun."

She did not even have to look up and see his expression—she could hear the puzzlement in his voice, "Huh?"

"I-I'm not th-that good. I-I'm s-sorry for w-wasting y-your time."

Hinata at last ventured to lift her eyes and look at him. His face was still covered with genuine confusion. "What the heck are you talking about? You gave me a real run for my money, Hinata-chan! The thing is, you don't really attack enough, so you didn't do that much damage. We're really going to have to work on that. But not today—I'm starving. Wanna go catch dinner?"

All of a sudden, Hinata felt like cursing her father. The rebellious thought shocked her to the core. Never before had she hated her father so much—even when he had belittled her and regarded her as a failure, she had never hated him or held it against him since she knew she deserved all his disapproval. But now she did truly and genuinely hate the man, because it was his fault that she had to look Naruto-kun in the eye and say, "I, I better not."

There was a brief pause, then, she heard Naruto-kun respond, in an overly casual voice, "Oh, yeah, the whole thing with the stuffy Hyuuga."

Naruto tried not to let it show that it bothered him. But it did, deeply, to his very core it bothered him, because it was always like this, it would always be like this. No one would choose to spend time with him given any other option—there were always more important considerations, family, friends, things that mattered _more _than he ever would. Iruka-sensei cared, but he had his own life. The Third had cared, but he was dead, and even when he was alive, he was too busy. Just like Granny and the Pervert Hermit. And sure, there had been moments in Team 7 when he felt that he really belonged, but it was always a temporary, short-lived feeling. Eventually, Kakshi-sensei would have duties he'd say he had to attend to, Sakura-chan would have her circle of family and friends, and that bastard Sasuke had his revenge to nurse in bitter solitude, leaving Naruto standing there all alone at the crossroads, watching the three of them walk away from him.

And a tiny part of him couldn't help wondering if maybe this was a just an excuse the girl before him was using so she wouldn't have to hang out with him. If maybe he was wrong about her, and maybe she was just like the villagers too. He turned away, walking away from the training area so the disillusionment would not show on his face.

Hinata thought she felt her heart breaking all over again as she watched him walk away from her, at the very least, it was cracking, she was sure. And so, somehow she found the courage to call out, "M-maybe sometime if, if, um, Sakura-chan was also there…"

He turned briefly to look at her, an almost smile smile just touching his lips, "Yeah," before continuing on his way. She watched until his figure disappeared entirely.

* * *

_Steamy Leaf Operation: Day 5 Sunday_

Sakura stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom in boredom. It was her long awaited day off: medic-nins of her caliber only had leave once a week since there weren't that many as skilled as she was. Sakura couldn't figure out for the life of her _why_ on the one afternoon she did have free, there didn't seem to be anything worth occupying her time with. She stared at her ceiling some more, but it didn't seem like anything exciting was going to happen up there any time soon. Fortunately, before the boredom gave way to homicidal frustration, she was struck by the sudden thought she had not seen Hinata in _ages_.

And so she decided it was high time she hunted down one Hyuuga Hinata and figured out just what the heck was going on. She had seen less and less of her friend lately—the dark-haired girl seemed to be perpetually buried in some kind of research project. Besides, there was also the much more titillating information of just what was happening between her friend and her hard-headed teammate that Sakura realized she had failed to draw out as of yet. In fact, she was surprised at herself for letting it go on this long without prying out all the details.

With this project in mind, Sakura eagerly jumped off her bed, straightened her clothes and headed out the house, absently calling out to her mother not to wait on her for dinner. Sakura walked towards the Hyuuga compound, hoping her friend was at home. It seemed that she was in luck today, because the stone-faced Hyuuga guard said in a steady monotone, "Hinata-sama is within. Please wait for her maid to come and fetch you."

Sakura had never been inside the Hyuuga Compound before, and she peered around her curiously as she followed the equally stone-faced maid even as she made sure to trail close behind the woman. All the buildings and hallways looked so similar that, if left to her own devices, Sakura was certain she would lose her way in a matter of minutes.

She found Hinata kneeling at a table covered in stacks of books in a sparsely furnished room. Sakura wondered if it could possibly be the girl's bedroom—there seemed to be nothing personal about it at all. But she had much more important matters than interior decor to discuss at this moment. Sakura was not one to waste time beating around the bush. She retuned the other girl's gentle although somewhat harried greeting and smile before getting straight to the point. "Hinata-chan, what the heck is going on? What are you doing? Just what are you so busy with?"

Sakura had heard that working at the Diplomacy Corps was demanding but she didn't think they'd have Hinata buried in paperwork _all_ the time, but it seemed that now no matter where Hinata was, Sakura always saw her with a book in hand these days. She'd even had the gall to bring one to lunch one day! Of course, Sakura had put her foot down at that. There was no way in hell Sakura was going to let someone read a book while eating lunch with her. And soon after that, Hinata had stopped showing up for lunch at all, begging off with the excuse of research. So far, the Hyuuga girl had quietly and discreetly brushed off all inquiries by saying she had a few projects that had gotten out of hand and neatly sidestepped the question of just what it was that had her so preoccupied. But Sakura was nobody's fool. She was shrewd enough to know that there was much more going on here than her friend was willing to admit.

And it wasn't just simple nosiness driving her. Well, it wasn't simple nosiness _alone_. After not seeing Hinata for a full week, Sakura had started to get worried, and that worry had only compounded when she caught a flash of Hinata dashing from the Hokage Tower to the Diplomacy Corps offices with such a look of anxiety on her face.

But of all the reactions she had imagined, Sakura didn't think that in response to her rather blunt question Hinata would freeze up like that, like she expected an enemy attack to be triggered by Sakura's words.

For her part, Hinata thought her heart had stopped. Here, at the very heart of the Hyuuga, she was being asked about plans to destroy the clan hierarchy. She could not even imagine the consequences. In fact, she never had really thought about the consequences—the legal ones. Plotting against the clan, possibly against the Village, if the Hyuuga bloodline was fully taken into account as a secret weapon of the Village. Treason. She was committing treason. They hanged traitors. Hinata felt her fingers, still clutching the journal she had been reading when Sakura-chan came in, go numb.

Yes, Sakura was nobody's fool. And she was shrewd enough to know that somehow, she had stepped on a figurative landmine. There was a lot going on here, and the look on Hinata's face suggested it was no laughing matter, no easy bit of gossip. Now was not the time for asking her friend about her strange behavior or teasing her about Naruto. For all that Sakura enjoyed playing the part of brash, bossy friend—come to think of it, it was the part Ino played in her friendship with Sakura, wasn't it?—she genuinely liked and cared about the quiet girl who she had unexpectedly befriended. She was shy, and serious, and quiet and all those things that Sakura could never be, and it would take something truly terrifying to put that look of dread on her face. Sakura was a kunoichi. She knew the value of information, she knew when things was too sensitive to even be thought of, let alone whispered. She let the matter drop, merely remarking, "This thing you're working on, you're staking your life on it, aren't you?"

Hinata let out the breath she had not realized she had been holding in relief. The tension that had been coursing through her body eased. The relief was so great, it left her feeling a little dizzy. She nodded her head slightly and saw Sakura nod her head in return in acknowledgment.

But just when Hinat thought she was off the hook, she heard an enthusiastic tone creep into Sakura's voice—it was the same tone that had lead her, unsuspecting, into the hands of Yamanaka Ino—that she knew would not bode well for her. "Well, that sounds great and noble and all that, but, girl, you look dead on your feet! What you need is some P&R!"

"Um, P&R? D-don't you mean R&R, Sakura-chan, as in r-rest and relaxation?"

"No. I mean P&R. Pampering and relaxation!" And without waiting for a response, Sakura grabbed Hinata's hand and dragged the other girl reluctantly from the table. "Come on!"

And somehow, before Hinata knew it, she was snatched up in pink whirlwind and being pulled through the streets of Konoha. Soon the pink had streaks of pale gold in it, and she realized that they had picked up Ino-san along the way. And then, as if she were living through the plot of some badly written story, she found herself standing outside, of all places, the Steamy Leaf Bathhouse.

Watching the quiet girl eye the shop sign, Sakura clarified, "My mom comes here all the time. It's a civ bathhouse, but that's kind of a plus since it's nice to get away from all the crazy kunoichi now and then." Then she smiled broadly and added, "Present company excepted, of course."

"They have some first rate masseuses," Ino chimed in. And then peering critically at Hinata's face, "And you could do with a facial—look at all those stress lines around your eyes! We're definitely going for the jasmine and lavender bath today. This girl is in serious need for some unwinding!" As if that had settled the matter, both the blonde and the pinkette grabbed one of Hinata's shoulders and frog marched her to the entrance of the bathhouse.

As they walked through the main entrance to the bath, the two girls pulled Hinata towards a discreet and yet elegant side-door that Hinata had failed to notice on all her previous visits to the bathhouse. In flourishing yet understated script it read _Steamy Blossom Spa_.

Before they entered however, Sakura paused briefly, a thoughtful look crossed her face as she considered her easily embarrassed friend. Sakura remembered her own discomfort when the masseuse had asked in tones of horror just what had happened to create the crisscross pattern of some old scars on her lower back. And so, while Ino tapped her foot impatiently, Sakura tugged Hinata a little closer and whispered, "Use a little henge on yourself. They make such a huge fuss about scars and stuff—it's really embarrassing."

Hinata breathed a little sigh of relief: she wouldn't have to explain why she was disguising her eyes and the rest. No time for color contacts now. Besides, those certainly would arouse Sakura and Ino's suspicion. She hid her scars and darkened her eyes do gray, hoping that the two girls wouldn't remark on it, for surely as well trained kunoichi, they would notice.

They walked into a changing room much more elegant than the utilitarian one for the general bathhouse. It was decorated in shades of lavender and white and filled with light from windows high up enough near the ceiling that no one could look in. There were unused terrycloth robes hanging on pegs on one side, and Hinata mimicked Sakura and Ino as the other two girls undressed and grabbed fresh robes before heading into another reception area where the receptionist asked just what they would like today.

Hinata had never gotten a massage before, and she hadn't realized there were so many options—she found herself perplexed until Ino took the decision out of her hands by saying in an offhand manner, "Of course, you're getting the full-body massage. You look like a ball of tension!"

And that was pretty much what the shocked masseuse told Hinata later—that she was alarmed by the number of knots in her muscles. "Not just your back!" the woman said in astonishment. "But your arms, legs, and even all the way in your toes!" Hinata was too busy trying not to be embarrassed by a stranger touching her naked body to try to respond. If the masseuse noticed that her hard work was being undone by the moment as Hinata tensed with embarrassment and blushed bright scarlet when the masseuse lowered the towel to her waist as she lay on her stomach, the woman fortunately did not comment.

But, somehow, after a while, Hinata managed to get used to the sensation of fingers kneading almost painfully into her skin. She felt so relaxed and sleepy afterwards, it took almost too much effort to get off the table, back into the robe, and follow the other two girls to the special aromatherapy baths associated with the spa.

Hinata tied the rope of her purple bathrobe around her waist as Sakura led the way to the Jasmine and Lavender bath—it only contained one large sunken pool in an abstract curved shape. The water was tinted a faint purple with dried lavender packets and mingled with the sweet smell of jasmine that wafted from the small white blossoms scattered about in the water. Steam rose up from the hot water and carried the rich scent of lavender and jasmine throughout the room.

Hinata looked about for a towel, but there were none. She did not know why she was so surprised to see Ino and Sakura taking off their robes nonchalantly, hanging them on pegs, and entering the water nude. She stood at the edge of the pool uncertainly for a few moments but then decided that having to explain why she was uncomfortable to Ino-san would be more embarrassing than actually being naked in front of the others. There were only two or three other women present, and if she just closed her eyes the entire time, Hinata told herself she could pretend she was alone. And as soon as she got in the water, she could make sure that her body from the chest down stayed below water level.

She stripped and walked as quickly to the tub as she could, sinking down deep into the water and pulling her knees up in front of her chest, while Sakura and Ino lounged carelessly.

But Hinata could not seem to work herself up to her usual levels of tension. She felt her body relax in spite of herself, her arms sinking to her side and her knees sliding down. The massage had left her feeling completely and utterly boneless; for some reason, the image of an octopus languidly fluttering its tentacles came to mind. She giggled a little at the mental image, and missed the self-congratulatory smiles Sakura and Ino were sending each other.

Sakura felt relieved to see Ino's idea to bring Hinata to the spa working wonders—she had been genuinely worried, not only by how stressed out Hinata had been looking lately, but even more so by the look of utter terror that had crossed her face when Sakura had confronted her earlier that day. Sakura had thought forcing Hinata to confess what was bothering her would be the better option but in their hurried consultation minutes before they dragged Hinata to the spa, Ino had insisted that sometimes, getting someone to relax was much more important than getting them to unburden their secrets. And it looked like she had been right. Sakura decided she wouldn't probe the matter for now, and instead, focus just on pampering her friend—and of course herself—as much as possible.

Despite their insistence, however, Hinata had turned down the facemask—that green mud looked much too slimy and she did not think she'd like the feel of it against her skin. Apparently a day in the spa was good for the other kunoichi as well, for instead of haranguing her to get a facial anyway, Ino had just shrugged and remarked, "Suit yourself."

Soon an attendant came in with the materials for the facials the other girls had wanted, and as Hinata watched, both their faces were coated in a thick, slick green goo and slices of cucumber covered Ino's eyes while lemon decorated Sakura's. Hinata couldn't help laughing, but the other girls couldn't retaliate because even speaking would unsettle the work the masks were doing on their skin.

The two other women were at the opposite end of the bath and had not paid any attention to the antics of the kunoichi at all. Feeling less shy and inhibited now that she knew she wasn't being observed, Hinata really and truly relaxed in what felt like years. Now, she could even contemplate the thought of the consequences of her actions in wanting to undo the cursed seal with something approaching tranquility. It was foolish, wasn't it, that she hadn't considered just how serious her actions were. She thought of Neji-niisan. Of the uncle she had never known. Of her mother, who had also borne the cursed seal. Of the fact that either she or her sister were doomed for the same fate. Of the countless Branch members she only knew in passing. Of the Main house which was suffering in its own way from the sickness the cursed seal was creating in the Hyuuga clan as a whole. One day, she was certain, the cursed seal would make their clan crumble just as the Uchiha's had. For such inequity bred hatred and a thirst for power that could only be quenched in blood. She was already on her path to change the Hyuuga, and even death, she decided, would not make her veer from it. The panic that had seized her with an unthinking, mindless terror eased its claws from her heart.

Hinata let out a deep sigh and felt as if all the worry and anxiety she had been holding inside her the entire week were drifting away from her with that breath. And yet, even as her body relaxed further, she felt a prickling sensation of scrutiny at the back of her neck. Almost as if someone were observing her. The thought unnerved her, causing her to hunch her shoulders and a tension returned to her muscles, already starting to undo the hard work of the masseuse.

Hinata looked around her, Sakura and Ino were still leaning against the edge of the pool, their eyes certainly closed and covered under slices of various fruits and vegetables. The women at the far edge of the pool were talking languidly and not even looking her way. Perhaps this hectic week had taken a greater toll on her than she had thought and she was just being overly paranoid. But Hinata was a kunoichi and she knew that mistrusting your instincts had lead many a ninja to a grisly death. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched and so, subtly, she activated her byakugan.

Instinctually, she wanted to let out a sharp scream and cry out "Pervert!", but only a choking little gasp came out. She murmured some incoherent apology to her friends (she had this awful suspicion that she said something as utterly inane as "Um, excuse me, I have to go….I, I just remembered I left the gas on!"), grabbed her bathrobe and rushed out as quickly and discreetly as she could.  
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To be continued..._


	18. Chapter 18

A/N 2/28/08: Sorry for the long silence and that this is a short chapter and actually kind of disjointed from what's come before, but I have not been feeling as inspired by this fic lately. Reader interest tends to influence writer interest, really. So you have **Duramiun** to thank though that I even wrote this much!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, R.O.D., or any other quoted or cited material.

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"Don't move—I'll raise an alarm," she said in a voice so steady that it surprised Hinata herself. Steel had entered her voice, for the nasty old man had been eyeing _her_ chest. She felt detached from the situation, as if someone else were speaking, even though the voice in her ears was certainly her own. She had somehow managed to make it to the changing room in a casual manner, dressed hurriedly, and walked as nonchalantly to the building next to the bathhouse. She had leapt to the roof of the squat one-story building deftly and walked over to the old man hunched over the edge of the roof, binoculars glued to his eyes.

The man, who did not seem to have noticed her approach, at last began to turn around at the sound of her voice. "Caught again, huh?" he huffed. It wasn't surprising really, since like any true gentleman, Jiraya did not use any ninjutsu while peeping, and thus leaving himself entirely vulnerable to the tender mercies of the lovely ladies.

He turned around and set his eyes on one of the beauties he'd just been watching through his binoculars. He'd been too busy ogling her chest to notice her eyes at the time and was now rather stunned to realize there had been a Hyuuga of all people in an unremarkable civilian bathhouse.

Meanwhile, Hinata was running through a mental checklist: long white hair, ridiculous red geta, forehead, red face tattoos and a forehead protector with the character for oil etched in it, peeping binoculars. He seemed to fit Naruto-kun's description of Jiraiya-sama perfectly. But she had never thought she'd run into him on her own—just how should she approach him? The last thing she wanted was for one of the Legendary Three to think she was threatening him with blackmail, although really, that was_ exactly _what she was trying to do.

Before she could decide how to proceed, the man raised his eyebrows and said, "A Hyuuga?"

"Yes." Hinata responded and told herself, _just think of this as a diplomatic mission_. Hold your cards close to your chest but reveal a hint of your strength. "And those two in the spa are kunoichi."

When the man before her merely tilted his head to the side in query, she added (although really her boss at the Diplomacy Corps would have reamed her out for being so blunt if this were a mission!), "I do no think they would be appreciative of your activities if they were to discover them."

The Hyuuga girl was an enigma as well as a looker. Had he not been such an experienced and well-trained ninja, he would not have been able to detect her jitteriness, the façade of indifference was a good one. But then he supposed, even the least skilled Hyuuga would be good at masking his or her emotions, growing up as they did, surrounded by too many astute pairs of eyes. But it wasn't her Hyuuga façade alone that intrigued him. With those nuanced, refined words of hers, he was sure she'd had some training with diplomat-nins, although she was surely still an amateur; she'd threatened him easily enough but had failed to give even a hint as to her motives and so lost the advantage of making him willing to hear her proposition in detail.

But he would play along since she was trying so hard. He was always the perfect gentleman, never one to disoblige a pretty girl. "Well, then my dear, are you planning to tell them?"

Hinata's hands, already trembling slightly, began to sweat a little at this point. But she firmed her resolve and added, "That depends."

It would be rank foolishness if she tried to blackmail the man alone, she decided at last. Even if Jiraiya-sama wanted to protect himself from being beaten by enraged kunoichi, Hinata was sure he was too loyal a ninja to reveal possibly sensitive information about ninja seals to a complete stranger. In diplomacy, it was always best to convince your target that you meant no more of a threat than you intended to convey. The best way to put to rest any fears she might be an enemy of the Leaf or an unknown and possibly dangerous quantity would be to present Jiraiya-sama with someone he would know and trust, like Naruto-kun. Then he would be more willing to concede that her intentions were most likely not nefarious. In short, she would have someone to vouch for her instead of presenting herself as a complete stranger. Which meant that all she had to do now was to make sure he would agree to meet with her at a later point when she could bring Naruto-kun with her.

And so Hinata added, "You must agree to meet me tomorrow at noon on top of the Hokage monument and do what I ask of you at that time to the best of your ability." It would be secluded enough and far enough from the village that she and Naruto-kun could discuss the matter with Jiraya-sama without fear of being overheard. Although, even still, she was not sure if she wanted to reveal her full plans to anyone besides Naruto-kun just yet…Naruto-kun had not realized it, but she was sure that Jiraya-sama would not miss the fact that what she proposed in doing away with the cursed seal of the Hyuuga could be interpreted as treason against the Leaf.

But now was not the time to dwell on uncertainties. She firmed her expression, and waited patiently for Jiraya-sama's response to her demands.

"That's all you ask for?"

"Yes," her courage growing now that a plan was unfolding itself to her, she added, "I have also heard about your 'research.' I ask you hand over what you have gathered today as a gesture of goodwill and a token of your intentions to appear tomorrow." That was another mark of her training; it would hardly convince the man to listen to her if she insulted him outright by demanding he hand over his filthy pornography. But Naruto-kun had said that Jiraya-sama valued his dirty notes more than his life and so surely he would come to retrieve them if nothing else. And with Naruto-kun there, Jiraya-sama would be more inclined to listen. Satisfied with her reasoning, Hinata brushed back the hair, still damp from the spa, which was clinging to her forehead irritatingly.

It was then that Jiraiya noticed she did not bear the curse seal. A young Hyuuga woman without the seal; she was no doubt the contested heiress. He cursed himself as three times a fool and senile too for not having noticed sooner. But the girl was so quiet and unassuming, despite her diplomatically veiled demands that her behavior had not registered in his mind as that of Hyuuga, much less a Main house Hyuuga, and much less a possible heiress.

Now, why would the possible Hyuuga heiress approach him? Jiraiya tried to think back and remember if he had done anything to merit a Hyuuga's wrath in the recent past and could come up with nothing. Well, nothing significant anyway. Unless…could it be that he was being propositioned by this lovely Hyuuga girl?!

The Hokage monument was a strange place for a rendezvous, but he supposed it was isolated enough for a tryst. She hadn't seemed that angry over the peeping either! Now all the pieces fit in place. He grinned at the girl lecherously. Although, really she was much too young for him, she looked no more than 16. Ogling was one thing, but really she was much too young for his tastes for more than that. But that didn't mean he couldn't be flattered by the request and let her down gently. Alas, a man of such worldly experience and handsomeness such as himself had too many admirers for his own good.

"Here, my dear," he said handing over a hefty amount of paper covered with the scrawls and sketches of his most recent research, "is my token of goodwill." Maybe she would enjoy some…_pleasure_ reading that would help ease the sorrow in her heart when he eventually gracefully and gently told her it would be a few years yet before they could come to any sort of intimate arrangement. "And I will see you tomorrow."

With that, he disappeared so instantaneously and perfectly there was no chance of Hinata tracing him. She was left gazing at the space he had been standing in. Part of her couldn't believe that she'd at last come a step closer to the elusive research on seals! She was not sure if she could wait until tomorrow.

Tomorrow! That meant she had better hunt down Naruto-kun as soon as possible to ask him if he could even come with her to meet Jiraya-sama the next day. The more time she spent with Naruto-kun, the more she realized just how wonderful he was. Had she not already been in love with him, she would have fallen hard for him over the past few days. He'd been so helpful about this whole thing, realizing how important it was to her and doing his best to maker her dream come true. She knew that without Naruto-kun's help, she'd probably be reading Hyuuga journals until her hair turned gray.

But even as she imagined his enthusiastic smile as she told him of the success of his plan to ensnare Jiraya-sama, Hinata remembered her father's threats and realized that even if she were to figure out where Naruto-kun was right now, she would not be able to talk to him, at least not in public. She did not really know if her father had spies trailing her, but she had been born cautious, and there was too much at stake for this risk to be worth taking. If her father thought she was disobeying him, she had no doubt in her mind that he would make it near impossible for her to see Naruto-kun ever again.

So, what would be the best way of disguising her errand of locating Naruto-kun? It worried her to think along such devious lines, but she supposed she had no other choice. Sakura-chan was probably her best bet; she knew the other girl would help her if Hinata explained how important the situation was.

Only then did Hinata remember that she had ditched the other two kunoichi in the spa! Hoping Ino-san wouldn't be too infuriated and Sakura-chan too upset, Hinata jumped down from the roof only to see the other girls coming out of the main entrance of Steamy Leaf Bathhouse.

Feeling abashed that her sudden departure might have made them cut short their own relaxation, Hinata blurted out, "I-I'm so sorry. I hope I didn't ruin your plans."

"No," Ino said thoughtfully. She then looked over at Sakura significantly and Sakura nodded in response. "Well, ladies," Ino continued, "this was fun and we should do it again, but I'm afraid I have to get back for my shift at the shop."

Hinata watched the blonde girl walk away with relief. She did like Ino-san, but what she had to share was too sensitive and personal to tell an acquaintance. Besides, she wanted to limit the information to as few people as possible. Of course she had no idea that the two kunoichi were thinking along the same lines and had even plotted out what would be the best way to proceed.

Both Ino and Sakura had done their best to help the overworked girl unwind, but now it was Sakura's job to see if she could figure out just what was going on with Hinata since she would hardly confide in some she was only casually acquainted with like Ino. As Ino had said in the spa after Hinata's hasty departure, "There's something eating that girl alive." And then, without the slightest pause or hesitation or explanation she had added, "We Leaf kunoichi need to stick together, now more than ever." Given that Ino's team was being groomed by the Intelligence department—considering Shikamaru's intellect and Ino's mind ninjutsu, it really was no surprise—Sakura had been dying to ask Ino what she meant. She wondered what new disaster was on the horizon for the Leaf that Ino was expressing solidarity is such a matter-of-fact voice.

But you did not get to advance as far as a medic-nin as Sakura had without understanding the importance of patient-medic confidentiality, of high risk medical information, of secrecy. So Sakura confined her self to explaining to Ino how harried and terrified Hinata had looked when Sakura had confronted her at the Hyuuga compound. They concluded that the situation was obviously highly sensitive, clan-related, personal, and most likely dangerous. And then, without dislodging the slices of lemon decorating their eyes, Ino and Sakura had commenced discussing the most strategic approaches to the situation, how best they could help their fellow kunoichi even if she could not or would not reveal all her secrets to them. Because after all, every kunoichi's life consisted of web of secrets, private, professional, and personal. To be a kunoichi, really, meant living among secrets, breathing them, sleeping them, understanding how to function when you couldn't know them but were aware of their presence.

It brought out a professional side of Sakura that Hinata did not have much experience with since so much of their friendship consisted of the casual non-professional aspect of their relationship. After all, they had never been teammates or gone or missions with each other, or even seen each other in official capacities. And so Hinata was startled to find Sakura listening to her request seriously without asking too many questions, as if she were participating in a complex mission in which she was only given information regarding her own part. Hinata didn't even have to reveal everything, just that she had some important information to share with Naruto-kun but was forbidden from seeing him alone by her family on the fear that their relationship be misconstrued.

And Sakura had left things at that, although mentally she could not help wondering if Hinata's relationship with Naruto was much more serious than either her quiet or obnoxiously loud friends had led her to believe. Given the clan disapproval of Naruto Hinata had just expressed, she was tempted attribute all of Hinata's anxiety to an illicit secret relationship with Naruto. And yet the girl had looked so cornered when Sakura had asked her pointblank at the Hyuuga compound what she was plotting. As if so many lives were at stake. No, it could not be a simple forbidden romance. Sakura sighed and wished that their lives could be that simple.

As they walked silently to Naruto's apartment on the edges of the village, Hinata realized with a jolt that Sakura was behaving like a kunoichi, and not like her friend. She did not know what to make of it, or even how to react. She genuinely enjoyed Sakura's friendship and so its absence saddened her. And yet, this whole cursed seal affair with the Hyuuga was much to important, much too volatile to even be breathed to another soul if it could be helped.

So, they walked in silence, and when Naruto-kun answered his door, Sakura hung back to allow them secrecy as Hinata communicated in code that she had made contact with the target and where and when they would rendezvous. After confirming she would meet Naruto-kun at the meeting point the next day, Naruto closed his apartment door with a bang, because set crooked on its rusted hinges, only a good slam would close it. Which left Hinata and Sakura in the same silence thick with secrets they had walked in.

As they descended the steps of Naruto's apartment complex, Hinata said softly, "Thank you."

Sakura smiled. "Hey, what's a day of pampering without desserts? Let's swing by Ino's and see if she wants to go to that fancy pastry shop downtown."

And Hinata smiled too, because they could be both kunoichi and friends.

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_To be continued..._


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: I apologize for the long delay. I was just going to abandon this story since I've stopped keeping up with the Naruto manga. But then I finally decided to keep going and just not worry about trying to incorporate canon events into this anymore. I started writing this well before we got details on just who's in the Akatsuki and hints about why Itachi killed the Uchiha so they're not really going to feature in this. Apologies upfront.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who kept reading and reviewing! I'd probably have never come back to this fic at all without all your words of encouragement! Last of all, this chapter is unedited, and I'll probably go back in the next few days and try to fix any mistakes. If anyone is interested in beta-ing, please contact me (grammar is the number one requirement).

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Of course Jiraiya made sure to arrive at the Hokage Monument early. One could never be too careful. He couldn't even begin to count the number of times a sweet pair of eyes and lovely curves had led him into nearly fatal disaster because they tended to make him lower his guard and the only way to counteract that proclivity of his was to be as unnecessarily methodical as an overly cautious chuunin. He scouted the area for traps, anything suspicious or out of place. Finding nothing beyond innocently rustling leaves, he felt a little guilty for mistrusting the Hyuuga heiress. Poor girl was just besotted with him. How could he possibly think it was anything more than that? Really, it was not unusual for a man of his talent and experience to attract the ladies based on his reputation alone…

His increasingly lecherous train of thought was interrupted by the clear sound of a footfall. No, two. A heavier tread and a lighter one. Hm. Perhaps there was more here than hormones. He leaned against a broad tree trunk to give off an air of confidence and carelessness.

The girl entered the clearing first, and bowing greeted him with a simple, "Jiraiya-sama."

Before he had any chance of replying, the eye-searing shade of orange behind her gave away the identity of her companion. He'd seen that same hideous color too often during the past three years to not be able to identify it on sight.

"Naruto! What're you doing here? Don't tell me…."

The man's voice trailed off as Hinata looked curiously between Naruto and Jiraiya-sama. She was surprised that this reunion between teacher and student was, well, almost hostile. Perhaps that was overstating the case. At any rate, Jiraiya-sama did not seem to be pleased at seeing Naruto-kun.

At last, eyeing Naruto-kun one more time, the older ninja concluded philosophically, "I didn't think you were cut out for a threesome, but Kakashi did call you the Number One Surprising Ninja..."

Hinata felt herself blushing furiously as images from those "research notes" she had confiscated from the Legendary Pervert—Hermit, Legendary Hermit, yes that was what she meant—came to mind. Really she'd only been looking to make sure that she should destroy the material rather than return it to him. There had been a bit of curiosity as well, but…

"T-t-threesomes?!" a voice from behind her shoulder sputtered. She turned to see the horrified and mortified expression on Naruto-kun's face. "Hey, you—you perv! You, you can't just, just...." It was as if Naruto-kun's brain couldn't process the thought any further.

"Oh." Jiraiya didn't have to feign the disappointment in his voice. "So you just want me to watch the two of you then?"

"Hey, quit it! You can't say stuff like that in front of _Hinata-chan_!"

"Hinata-_chan_ is it?"

"I said cut it out! Hinata-chan can't even understand the kind of gutter your mind's in!"

At that, Jiraiya leered at Hinata's scarlet face and said, "I don't know about that."

"You asshead! Quit it or I'll beat the crap out of you!" Naruto yelled back at him, his hands clenching into fists.

Hinata wished the earth would swallow her up. Naruto-kun looked like he was ready to strangle Jiraiya-sama any second now while the hermit was still waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively. The longer this went on the more surreal it seemed to her. She had been nervous all last night, imagining how this encounter with the Legendary Hermit would go, and yet in her most anxiety-filled imaginings, it had never taken this turn. Hinata could feel a hysterical bubble of laughter building up inside. Before it could escape, she forced herself to blurt out, "J-Jiraiya-sama. I asked you here because I need some information on seals and how to remove them."

It was as if the white-haired man before her had been replaced with another person entirely. All of a sudden, the leers, the jokes, and laughter disappeared from his face entirely. Looking between Naruto-kun and herself, his gaze resting for a long space on Naruto-kun's stomach of all places, he said in a tone so serious it chilled her blood, "Is that what this is about?" And yet, the words weren't really a question.

She was completely at a loss, until Naruto-kun spoke up, "No, old man. This isn't about me at all."

And then, slowly, it all seemed to fall into place. They were talking a bout the Nine-Tailed Fox. But she could not reveal what she knew. She had promised herself that for Naruto-kun's sake, she would leave it as his secret to share with her or not.

Hinata was afraid that at any moment, either Naruto-kun or Jiraiya-sama would notice that she seemed to understand their conversation much more than she had any right to. And so, she called on yet another piece of training from the Diplomacy Corp. It was a simple one: drawing attention to oneself explicitly in order to avoid drawing attention to oneself accidentally. When you don't want someone to notice your reaction, the best thing to do was to start talking and thus to attempt to control their interpretation of your thoughts, and if you were truly skilled, you could even direct their attention to exactly where you wanted it to be.

Hinata had been half-hoping she would not have to tip her hand to Jiraiya-sama. The more she realized just how deadly her plan to do away with the cursed-seal was, the fewer people she wanted to limit the knowledge of it to. But she also knew that she would never get the information she wanted unless she offered some of her own in exchange.

"Y-you see, Jiraiya-sama. I am c-concerned about the effect of the cursed-seal my clan uses. But I can't find any information on how it works or how it might be removed."

Her interruption had the intended effect of refocusing Jiraiya-sama's and Naruto-kun's attention on her and the Hyuuga, and away from the topic of all other seals. She breathed a mental sigh of relief.

"Hinata-chan's smart. She's done a lot of research and stuff but there doesn't seem to be that much on sealing. And she can't ask her family," Naruto-kun added. "They'd want her to quit. Since you know about seals, even though you're just a good-for-nothing pervert, I thought you could help us figure out how it works."

Jiraiya couldn't resist one last leer, although the question was a deathly serious one too. "_Us_, is it?" he asked suggestively.

Naruto frowned, part in confusion part in frustration. Dealing with the old pervert always ended in headaches. Unsure as to what the man was actually asking, he replied at last, "Yeah, us. I said I'd change that stuffy Hyuuga clan when I become Hokage and if Hinata-chan plans on starting now instead of later, I'm gonna help her."

Jiraiya tilted his head to the side, eyeing both the boy and the girl in front of him as if weighing Naruto's answer in a balance. That the boy trusted her was apparent, and that Jiraiya knew, counted for quite a bit.

When he had first left on that training trip with Naruto, Jiraiya had considered the boy greener than a seasick Orochimaru had become back on one of their first genin mission. Naruto seemed just plain naïve, giving trust before testing that those he bestowed it on deserved it. It was a bad habit he planned on breaking during the years they spent traveling. The kid would never make Hokage if he couldn't even figure out this basic level of political interaction.

But the more he had traveled with the boy, the more he had realized just what an astute judge of character he was. Naruto was hardly taken in by physical appearance and dress the way even the most skilled ninja could be at times. Jiraiya was uncertain how much of this talent of Naruto's was inherited and how much of it he'd learned from living alone in a hostile environment from a young age; whether it was just a knack or a matter of long practice through a childhood fraught with uncommon dangers that had taught Naruto this skill.

At last the man turned to Hinata, his gaze hard and asked, "And why should I help you?"

He was one of the Legendary Three and known for his devotion to his village, so she gave him the answer that would convince him the most, that would move him the most: "Because the Hyuuga are the Leaf's first defense, and right now, that defense is rotting from within. I do not know how much longer my clan will be able to continue as it has."

But what Hinata had really thought of when he asked that question of her was that day, years ago when, after the chuunin exam she had been finally released from the hospital and she had been allowed to take up her training again without worries of damaging her heart permanently.

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It had been early in the morning, just after dawn. She had been practicing in a secluded garden (not that seclusion made any difference in compound full of Hyuuga eyes), alone because her father had formally told her that given her performance in the exam, he saw no reason to continue training her personally until she managed to at least learn the basics of Jyuuken.

She felt an edge of dread as she saw Neji-niisan approaching in the corners of her byakugan. Surely he was not headed in her direction. But all the wishful thinking in the world could not sway the implacable Hyuuga Neji.

He watched her silently until at last she made herself turn around, although she had no need to really do so to see his face.

His face expressionless, he asked, "There's something I want to know, Hinata-sama." It was not a request. He would get an answer out of her whether she gave one willingly through her speech or unwillingly through bodily responses that would bend to his own interpretations. "Why did you not use the cursed-seal?" Of course the model Hyuuga in his very reticence, Neji did not elaborate he was talking about the chuunin exam.

Hinata could feel tension in the soft dawn air around her as her cousin stared at her unflinchingly. What he had also left unsaid was the fact that in that final moment of their fight, he would have killed her. And she had known it.

From the start of that exam, she had known he wanted to beat and humiliate her because he knew she held the power of the cursed-seal over him even then. She could not come close to defeating him on skill alone, he knew, but that did not matter. With a mere thought, she could have him gasping in agony on the ground. And that made him want to crush her mercilessly. The longer she held off using it, the greater his fury at his helplessness grew. So he had struck at her heart, with the intent to kill. And still she had refused, even as she saw a killing blow coming towards her, to use the seal. Something like disbelief had saved him from fratricide; for not able to believe she would hold off even now, his hand had swerved just the barest fraction, but it had been enough to save her life.

Unable to find an answer himself to this question which had plagued him for days, weeks, he had no choice but to ask her. The necessity irritated him even further. He had given up his hatred for the girl after learning the truth of his father's death, but that did not mean he did not despise her for who she was. Her petrified refusal to answer, for example. "Are you so weak that you have lost your instinct for survival?" he bit out at last.

Her eyes which had been looking in his general direction while avoiding eye-contact finally focused on his face. It was more symbolic than necessary, as they both knew. "No," she said softly. "It is the hardest thing I have ever done. B-but I could not break a promise to myself."

As the silence between them stretched even longer, she had finally added, "I asked my mother, once, what it felt like."

She did not need to add that her mother had been of the Branch family and had expereinced the cursed-seal herself; she did not need to add that it was then she had promised herself to never use the cursed-seal, for Neji to understand and feel as if she had somehow managed to strike him in his blindspot, caught him entirely unaware and at her mercy.

His contempt for her could not change in an instant, but it was then that Neji felt he had finally seen himself clearly with the famed Hyuuga eyesight and found a fool. It was then that he had started his daily morning sparring sessions with her.

It was then that she had realized that her promise had not been enough. No, merely abstaining from an atrocity was not enough. She had to find a way to get rid of it.

* * *

She did not recite this deeply personal memory and conviction to Jiraiya, yet he saw enough of it in her face (and he silently wondered how the potential Hyuuga heiress could be so easily read like a book). And the boy trusted her too. Well, he could give her a little bit of useless and harmless information without going into too much detail. He winked at her, "Well, just for a pretty gal like you..." and pulled out a compact scroll seemingly from nowhere. "I don't have the time to teach you myself—"

"That's probably for the best," Naruto muttered with a frown.

"Shut up brat. This scroll explains the theory in detail, but basically, seals on the most fundamental level are just chakra in, chakra out. The caster pushes chakra into an object and makes it hold his will by putting it into a shape that amplifies and strengthens the chakra through writing. Just like handseals help you mold chakra, writing helps you keep chakra in a particular shape in a seal.

"Actually, the Fourth theorized that the jyuuken itself is kind of like a seal. Push chakra in to block the pathway, but since there's no symbol used to channel the chakra you push in and cement it into place, the seal isn't permanent. 'Course he could never get the Hyuuga to agree to let him get a closer look and test his theory.

"Anyway, seals are sort of primitive in that the only way to break them is brute force. Flush 'em with chakra. That's what you do with those portable sealing scrolls. Minor seals, like the kind that you use to store things in scrolls usually only take a slight amount of chakra. If they took too much, sealing scrolls couldn't be used effectively in battlefield situations. Anyway, by pushing chakra in, you break the flow of chakra in the symbol which holds it in place.

"Problem is, that chakra that was holding the seal in place has to go somewhere. When it's a small amount, like in a sealing scroll, it disperses fairly harmlessly.

"But with bigger seals, the chakra rebound can be dangerous enough to kill the unsealer. Even with safeguards in place, you flush a large seal with enough chakra to burst it, the sealing chakra recoils generally into the unsealer, trying to flow back into the position it was in for so long in the seal. This is why advanced unsealing is a forbidden technique. People die.

"This scroll," he added, tossing the item at Hinata, "explains the stuff in more technical detail, well, except for the information on how to perform advanced unsealing. If you want to get anything more advanced than this, you're gonna have to get clearance from the Hokage."

Hinata was grateful beyond words. In that brief lecture, Jiraiya-sama had explained more about seals than she'd been able to uncover in months of research. Finding information in a Hidden Village was accordingly difficult.

She wondered if her plans would ever progress far enough for her to be able to ask for clearance from the Hokage. And considering the political ramifications, would the Hokage want her tried for treason or could Hinata convince her of the benefits of her plan? She was getting ahead of herself. Her plans were no where near that stage yet. She smiled and bowed deeply to express her gratitude.

Had she known the man before her was trying to see down her shirt, she might not have felt so grateful. Naruto did know. "You pervert! Keep your eyes off Hinata-chan!"

"O ho! Boy's found himself a new crush, has he? Getting all sweet and protective on her?"

"What're you talking about now, old man? Are you completely senile!" Naruto shouted back angrily.

Jiraiya shook his head in disgust. Really, did the kid have no sense how to woo the ladies? He turned to the embarrassed girl once more, "He's a blockhead though. You're going to have to be the one to make the first move." And then he was gone, in a puff of white smoke, leaving behind the two teenagers, one baffled, and the other self-conscious.

There was a long awkward silence as Hinata fiddled with the scroll and refused to look up. When she couldn't bear the silence any longer, she blurted the first thing that she could think of, "H-how's your training going, Naruto-kun?" Ugh. She might as well have commented on the weather. He'd think her so boring!

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei and I are working on this elemental chakra training thing. I don't really understand how it works, but it's pretty cool! Hey, do you want to spar?"

"T-taijutsu?"

"Yeah, let's start with that, but I want to try some stuff with ninjutsu too afterwards."

"O-Okay," Hinata could feel the nervousness forming a pit of dread in her stomach. Naruto-kun had been so gracious last time, despite her dismal performance, but surely after repeating the experience, he would realize just how worthless she was. She felt wretched for the entire duration of their walk to the training grounds.

* * *

As she settled into a defensive stance, Naruto started shaking his head, "Nope, this time Hinata-chan, I'm going to make you attack me first!"

She looked at him in surprise and consternation. In her spars with her old teammates, she had comfortably fallen into the routine of warding off Kiba-kun's or Shino-kun's attacks. It was understood. Her position was always defense. It worked well on their team missions which tended to be tracking or retrieval. While Shino-kun and Kiba-kun concentrated on engaging their opponents, she made sure their objective was secured and then assisted her teammates. She had gotten in the habit, even in their spars, of never initiating an attack.

But how could she say no to Naruto-kun? Hesitantly, she charged at him.

At first, Naruto was satisfied. This was much better than last time when she just kept evading him. But, somehow, as the spar progressed, she slipped back into that same defensive mode of fighting. He called for a halt.

"Hey, Hinata-chan, I want you to hit me, as hard as you can."

"W-what?!"

"You'll see. Just hit me as hard as you can."

"B-but, N-Naruto-kun. I, I can't."

"Don't worry. Just do it." He stood still in front of her, looking at her expectantly. This was strange. He never really had to talk a girl into hitting him—Sakura-chan, Granny Tsunade, even Shizune-neechan sometimes. They'd pummel him without thought or warning. Figures. When you try to convince a girl to hit you, she just wouldn't do it.

"Look, Hinata-chan, I just want to show you, you can hit me really hard without worrying about it. I heal really fast, so don't hold back when we spar."

Hinata's confusion and consternation went to humiliation at those words. Quietly, she responded, "I-I'm not h-h-holding b-back. T-this is h-how w-weak I am."

"Hey, who told you that? You're good and you're fast. You just don't attack enough. So I want you to hit me. And do that glowy fingers thing—you know that Hyuuga-closing-chakra-thing—and hit me right here," he said, tapping at his chest. And as soon as he did, he thought of Sasuke. That bastard had punched right through his chest without remorse. For a few terrible moments of consciousness, he had felt a breeze bow through the hole ripped in his chest; he'd passed out mercifully soon afterwards. He wondered fleetingly, if he was crazy trying to talk this girl into something similar.

She thought of Neji-niisan and that strike at her heart. It was so easy, that strike. She'd learned it when she was 8—admittedly later than when she _should_ have learned it—but it was never until that moment, when she had seen it wielded against her with the intent to kill had she realized just how effortlessly fatal jyuuken really was.

No, she couldn't, she _couldn't_ do it. But would Naruto-kun think less of her?

Seeing the hopeless look in her eyes, he said. "You're scared, aren't you, of using that Hyuuga style of fighting?"

She looked down, humiliated. She owed him, at least an explanation and so whispered, "E-ever since the f-first chuunin exam."

The fear had gripped her each time she faced off against Neji-niisan even still; not that he would hurt her ever again, but of the jyuuken itself. It wasn't just the fatal strikes against heart, throat, and brain or the semi-fatal strikes against internal organs. _Any_ jyuuken strike was potentially permanently crippling. Force too much chakra into your opponent's chakra point by accident and you could destroy the pathway for life. Until the chuunin exam, that had never hit home on her quite in that way. It had shattered her confidence about something she hadn't even thought much about before and done almost instinctively.

Somehow, she was able to explain this all to him, tell him this terrible, secret fear that she hadn't dared voice even to Kurenai-sensei.

A thoughtful frown on his face, he responded, "So, really, the problem is you don't really know how much chakra to put in and so you worry you might use too much and hurt someone during a spar?"

At her hesitant assent, he smiled and clapped his hands, "Then, that's easy to solve! All you have to do is practice." All bitter memories of Sasuke were pushed out of his mind. "You can practice using different amounts until you figure out what works! And then when you get it figured out, you won't have to worry about holding back, since you'll know what too much and too little look and feel like!"

In theory, what he said was perfectly sound. There were idiosyncratic differences in each person's chakra pathways, but if by practicing on one person and then using him as a measure of sorts, she could figure out how to gauge the amount of chakra to use to inflict varying degrees of damage. "B-but I c-can't practice on _you_, Naruto-kun!"

"What? Why? What's wrong with me?"

"N-no, I m-mean. I, I don't w-want you to g-get hurt!"

"But this is about learning how to best protect your precious people, so you have to get better! And besides, I really do heal fast. You'll see. Here, if it makes you feel better, start out with very little chakra."

And somehow, with his hardheadedness, he was able to coax her into it. For hours, Hinata practice striking Naruto's chest and arms, using slightly more or less chakra and making note of variations. After a while, the analytical part of her mind took over and she was able to carry on more easily.

She was startled to note how much time had passed. "I-I'm sorry, N-naruto-kun! I've wasted so much of your time!"

"Nah, don't worry about it. It got a bit boring, but this gave me a good idea for my training with elemental chakra. Maybe I need to try different strength levels too like this, using a bunch of clones..." he trailed off into thought.

He rubbed his chest absent-mindedly. That jyuuken was really something. Even with his wild healing abilities, for perhaps the first time since he was a child he might actually have longterm bruises! The reason his Kyuubi healing was so damn fast was because the fox bastard had so much practice patching him up when he was a kid after he'd been roughed up by disgruntled villagers. But even with the Kyuubi, he might be black and purple for _days_.

Remembering how their last sparring session had ended on a sour note when she could not accept his invitation for a dinner for fear of a reprimand from her father, "A-are you heading home, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, I guess." The puzzlement was clear on his face.

"D-do you mind if I w-walk with you?" by the end, she could feel even her ears flushing with embarrassment. But she wanted him to know that her friendship was true—not merely a matter of convenience. If there _were_ Hyuuga spies following her—although her rational mind could not quite believe her father would waste clan resources on tracking her—even if her father found out about this little jaunt, he would have no grounds for being upset. She would simply claim that they were analyzing the sparring session. She wouldn't be "fraternizing with that boy in public" as she'd been forbidden to do.

They wended there way through the training areas, following the small paths weaving between the individual fields. "I-it must be c-convenient," Hinata forced herself to speak, "to live c-close to the t-training areas."

"Yeah. Usually I just sprint through the treetops and I get home in 5 minutes! I haven't walked through like this since I was in the Academy."

"Oh. Um. I h-hope you don't mind?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," And then, an excited look came over his face—Hinata knew because she always watched him closely from the corners of her eyes. "Hey, I wonder if it's still around! Come on!" he added, grabbing her wrist and suddenly darting off into the underbrush.

They ran around for twenty minutes or more, sometimes, it appeared to Hinata, in circles. "W-what're we l-looking for?" she asked finally.

"This." They had at last entered a small clearing removed from the Training Areas and more properly located in the woods that surrounded the village. There in the center was a little patch of soil separated off by a dilapidated looking fence. "I haven't been here in _years_!"

Hinata walked closer to the haphazard fence and peered over it. Inside was a wild mixture of weeds and vegetables. Nettles intertwined with cucumber vines. Occasional strawberries shining through high tufts of grass. Tomatoes sprawled on the ground—the unstaked plants too heavy to support the weight of the fruit. "Is this your garden, Naruto-kun?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah," he affirmed happily. He jumped over the fence with ease and started poking about among the plants. "Looks like these guys are tough! Even without me for all these years, some of 'em are still trying to grow."

Leaning cautiously on the precarious looking fence, Hinata watched him at work. "When did you start it?"

He paused, frowning, trying to pinpoint the memory. "I'm not sure. Maybe a couple years after I got out of the orphanage and started living on my own. This guy in a grocery store told me that if I wanted food, I should grow my own. When I asked Ol' Man Hokage how that worked, he said you could take a seed from an apple say and stick it in the ground and water it and stuff and after a few years you'd get a tree and get the apple back again. He said that some things like tomatoes and beans grew much faster, so I should start there." Somehow, without even knowing it, he felt like he was writing to Moon again. The thoughts and words slipping out with the same ease as in his initial correspondence with Hinata.

"And did you get a crop," she asked with genuine interest, "that first year?"

Naruto looked up and grinned. "Nah. You see, the first thing I tried was an orchard of ramen trees. Took me a while to figure things out. But I never thought it would keep hanging on so long on its own. Here," he said, tossing a strawberry at her.

It was sweet, with just a hint of tartness. "Thank you. Do you want a hand?" She smiled as he unknowingly smudged dirt on his cheek. It looked so endearing on him.

He looked up, seeing her again as if for the first time in the golden light of the setting sun. The trees around them cast shadows that made her hair looked even blacker, her white eyes pearly and tinted with violet shadows; but what really struck him was the softness of her smile. That soft smile was just for him. It suddenly felt like someone had punched him in the gut and all the air had been knocked out of him.

The sun sunk even lower, and the twilight gloom began to surround them, which finally drew his attention back to the present. "I guess it's too dark now. But I think I'll come back tomorrow maybe if you want to dig around in the dirt with me," he said, trying to act nonchalant and forget that strange lurching feeling that had overtaken him a few minutes ago as he had looked at her smiling face.

They had parted then, Naruto to his nearby apartment, and Hinata dashing through the trees to make it back on time for a Hyuuga clan dinner.

Naruto closed the apartment door behind him, rubbing his bruised chest absently and wondered if that's what had caused that sudden sensation back in the garden. Or maybe he'd eaten something that was a little off again. The memory of her sweet smile haunted him.

* * *

_To be continued..._


	20. Chapter 20

_Disclaimer: I do now own Naruto._

A/N 12/12/08: First of all, much thanks to my lifesaving new beta. Because of **mech pencil name** this chapter is out way earlier than I had planned and *significantly* more coherent, both in terms of content and grammar. All remaining mistakes are my own.

Second order of business: OMG I HAVE MY VERY FIRST PIECE OF FANART! Go check out **Tiamat42**'s awesome sketch inspired by this fic: tiamat42(dot)deviantart(dot)com(slash)art(slash)Naruto-Summer-Moon-103887031#. Also, much thanks to Tiamat42 for helping me figure out how a ninja war would work.

Lastly, I think I should really change the title of this fic to something more fitting. Any ideas? You can either take a poll on my profile page or leave me suggestions in reviews/PMs/emails if you have better ideas.

* * *

Hinata somehow managed to make it home with just enough time to dress for dinner, and found an invitation waiting for her on the one uncluttered corner of the low kneeling table she used as a desk—she always left the right-hand corner cleared for mail so she could tell immediately if she had received anything. The envelope was unadorned, but the heaviness of the paper subtly attested its cost.

Prudence overrode curiosity; as much as she wanted to find out just what was in that envelope, Hinata knew if she delayed any longer, she would be perilously close to being late for dinner and the last thing she wanted was to draw down all those Hyuuga eyes on her. She liked it best when they overlooked her entirely. She left the envelope untouched and hurried to the dining room.

She sat through the meal in her usual silence, her thoughts wandering over just how happy Naruto-kun had looked earlier today when she her attention was called back to the present by a raspy voice. "You have been spending quite a bit of time lately in the Hyuuga libraries, Hinata-san," Makoto-san observed, his wrinkled face set in its perpetual scowl. Of all the Main house elders, Hinata liked him the most, since it seemed he was gruff with everyone and not just her.

Before she even had a chance to formulate a reply, a sharp, feminine voice cut in. "Oh? Figuring out how to throw more of our clan's profits away on worthless servants and Branch house greed?" Kiyoko-san, a middle-aged member of the Main house, inquired with disdain so heavy in her voice it made Hinata flinch.

Over the course of her morning Hyuuga training in running the clan, Hinata had discovered to her surprised that her proposal for greater compensation for Branch servants had been well received by most of the Hyuuga elders. She had enough training with the Diplomacy Corps, though, to see the support of certain members for what it was. While some Main elders might have agreed because of principles, the majority had been swayed to it because they hoped it would silence the subtle grumbles of discontent that they could not help but be aware of from the Branch members over their treatment within the clan. And so, despite the objections of a few staunch conservatives Hinata's proposal for medical coverage and increased compensation for Branch servants would most likely be put into action soon.

Kiyoko-san identified herself proudly as a traditionalist and was one of the more vocal ones. But Hinata had never imagined the woman would have the gall to say such a thing during a family dinner—which consisted of both Main and Branch elders.

It was because the woman's tirade was directed at the Branch family rather than at _her—_for Hinata knew she certainly deserved all the disdain the woman felt for her, but how could Kiyoko-san possibly accuse the entire Branch house so unjustly? How dare she dismiss the entire Branch house, much as the entire village had dismissed a blond-haired boy who had done nothing but have a demon sealed with him—that Hinata had the presence of mind and anger to respond.

The quiet smaller conversations that had been going on around the room had ceased, but Hinata hardly noticed. Hinata turned to face Makoto-san, which, given the range of Hyuuga eyesight even without activating the byakugan was unnecessary. It was a completely symbolic gesture, and everyone in the room knew how to read it.

"I-I have just b-been studying more about the history of our clan, Makoto-san. The founding of the clan, old policies and traditions." Her voice gained more confidence as she continued, "It seems that this emphasis on the Branch and Main d-division in socio-economic terms within our clan has only really come into play in the last century, and the divide only became as rigid as it is currently as a reactionary response to the Uchiha massacre."

Hinata almost added that in her extensive reading in the Hyuuga archives, she had discovered that it was not uncommon for Branch members to be made Clan head at one time. But she refrained, considering that such a statement and a reminder of the last Branch Clan Head might be misread in the context of current political situation. Hyuuga Akira, who had the dubious renown of being the last Clan Head from the Branch house had lead the Hyuuga 80 years ago. His leadership had been rendered ineffectual because of the mutiny of the Main family who had selected him from the start to serve as nothing more than a puppet to their own desires. When he proved unwilling, they had rebelled against his authority, threatening to use the cursed seal to make him a slave to their wills. It was the corruption and infighting of the Main house—all of them holding the cursed seal over Hyuuga Akira's head for their own personal agendas and not the faults of the man himself in terms of governing and leadership that had led to an unstated directive of excluding Branch members from being Clan head. It was at that moment, 80 years ago that the tense relations between Main and Branch had become entirely toxic.

Her blood was pounding too hard in her temples from the adrenaline for her to notice right away, but soon, Hinata became aware of the silence that followed her words. She wondered if she had disgraced herself more in that one moment than she had in her entire life's worth of failures put together. But an unexpectedly stubborn part of her, which sounded suspiciously like Naruto-kun, insisted that if they would despise her for this, then they were the ones worthy of scorn.

At last Hiashi spoke. Yet his voice was not full of disgust or anger and somehow, Hinata knew that the words were directed at Neji-niisan rather than herself. "Do you know for what purpose the seal exists?" he asked, addressing the unspoken sentiments in Hinata's outburst. "To keep our clan united and strong in the face of danger."

There was not much conversation after that, and dinner ended shortly afterwards.

Hinata could not shake the sound of her father's lie from her head. _No, father_, she thought as she silently walked to her room. _I have read enough journals to know that the cursed seal exists only to solidify power in the hand of the Main family. It exists so that the Main house in its recklessness will not have to face the same fate as the Uchiha. It exists so that we can completely disregard the voice of the powerless members of the clan because they can never rebel._

Kneeling at her desk, Hinata touched the binding of the latest Hyuuga journal she was reading, one that belonged to a long dead Branch servant who wanted to do nothing more than be a kunoichi but was relegated to household help._ It exists so that all a dissatisfied Branch maid can do is spit in our food_.

Hinata closed her eyes, wishing all her anger away. She wasn't even sure where it had come from. She should just be grateful no one had chastised her, she thought, resting her head on the table. But she had been careful to say nothing _too_ incendiary... With her head at that angle, she caught sight of the envelope again—she had forgotten all about it because of the drama over dinner.

Carefully opening it with a kunai-turned-penknife, Hinata let out a semi-shocked gasp at the contents. It was an invitation to Shino-kun's _wedding_!

Well, engagement really, Hinata amended mentally as she read on; it appeared that the actual ceremony itself would take place in the Sand in a month and so the couple had decided to hold an engagement/pre-reception in the Leaf for all of Shino-kun's friends and family, many of whom would not be able to attend the actual wedding.

It was really too many shocks in one evening. Of course, she had heard from Shino-kun that the Aburames and Hasami-san's clan were close to finalizing the marriage negotiations, but it really hadn't sunk in that her teammate would soon be _married_. It was disorienting, really, to think of anyone from the Rookie 9 grown up enough to be starting their own family! And yet she knew she was being irrational; ninja sometimes married even younger than Shino-kun's 16 and Hasami-san's 18. It was another hazard of the occupation, really.

_Well_, Hinata concluded, trying to put her disproportionate shock in perspective, _I'll just have to ask Sakura-chan what I should wear_.

Looking at the small clock positioned precariously at her table, Hinata realized that it was only ten, and yet she was so tired. After days of so much sleep lost to research and all the surprises of today, perhaps she deserved an early night. She refused to admit that really, she just didn't want to open the scroll that felt like it must have been burning a hole in her pocket ever since Jiraiya-sama gave it to her this morning. All her hopes depended on it. She was terrified of opening it really, since so much depended on it. Surely she deserved one good night's worth of sleep before confronting the fact that all her plans for the Hyuuga were impossible as she dreaded the scroll would reveal.

* * *

Neji wondered if his cousin's outburst last night had been the precursor of her slipping from sanity as he watched her take on the jyuuken stance with even more hesitancy and uncertainty written on her face than usual.

The sun was just clearing the horizon, and Neji had not yet lifted his eyes from her shadow. He did not need to raise them any higher to see that she had adopted the offensive position, however ungracefully. And then, as if taking her cue from a trilling bird, she had snaked forward, intent on getting through his defenses, and yet she was fumbling even worse than usual.

She was more than a worthwhile human being, Hyuuga Hinata of the Main house. Neji knew this and felt worse than a purblind fool for not having realized it for over a decade. And yet he thought, looking with a corner of his vision at his forearm where her last strike had landed, she might never be a worthwhile fighter. A strike that should have aimed at the tenketsu in his wrist and thereby disabled his hand had merely resulted in a bruise as it hit completely off the mark.

He had not seen her make such a blatant, embarrassing mistake since that chuunin exam. He was about to call a halt, partially out of anger and partially out of concern when a look of confidence flitted across his opponent's face as she too caught sight of the purpling bruise from a corner of her vision.

Hinata felt self-assurance surge through her. All that work on gauging the result of her strikes with Naruto-kun yesterday had paid off! Her test strike had hit precisely the muscle she had intended! The amount of chakra and force had resulted in the exact shape, size, and intensity of bruise and even the extent of capillary damage and rate of bruising as she had in mind! She was so overjoyed at her success, she did something she never thought she would in the middle of a spar: she smiled as rushed at Neji-niisan with renewed vigor.

Caught off-guard by the sudden change in her demeanor despite his eyes, Neji momentarily fell into a defensive position. For once, the amount of chakra she forced from her fingers as she tried to close off his tenketsu was even, not the wavering irregular bursts of chakra that rendered her strikes ineffectual. She even managed to land a couple of blows, but what was even more amazing was that they were effective in sealing his chakra points. She'd landed blows in pervious spars, if nothing else out of sheer probability, but they never were quite as thorough as they should have been in sealing off his chakra. Neji had never been able to understand it, and had thought her even more untrained than he had initially considered her.

In fact, noticing this inexplicable imprecision in her strikes soon after he had started their early morning spars, Neji had even made her spend an entire morning going through the most basic jyuuken training that most Hyuuga children completed within months of having learned to activate the byakugan. It consisted of striking a series of eggs in such a way that only hairline fissures appeared but no yolk leaked out. Too much chakra resulted in an explosion of yolk and too little yielded no results. The exercise was helpful in giving a beginning jyuuken practitioner a sense of how to gauge both physical force and chakra behind his or her strikes.

Hinata-sama had looked utterly mortified when he had asked her to run through those basic, childish exercises and had shown quickly her expertise. And so, it had utterly baffled Neji when that same skill in gauging failed to transfer into her use of jyuuken in spars. Until now.

He would have to ask her during their next breakfast what had finally fallen into place for her. The corners of his mouth turned the slightest bit upwards. It appeared he had been a purblind fool twice over. Maybe she would be a worthwhile fighter after all. For some reason, the phrase Number One Surprising Ninja came to mind.

* * *

The glow of success from her morning spar, the congratulatory half-smile Neji-niisan had given her, stayed with Hinata all morning, through her Hyuuga training which consisted of balancing this month's accounts and stayed with her when she arrived at the Diplomacy Corps for work at 10.

Work at the Diplomacy Corps progressed as usual. The office was a small one, and employed half a dozen ninja or so in its entirety. As the lowest ranked ninja in the department, Hinata rotated through the three sub-departments of Economics, Civilian, and Ninja Affairs on a monthly basis. Currently, the sub-departmental head of the Economic division was out with a delegation negotiating a somewhat precarious tariff between the Wind Country and Fire Country. Considering both were allies of the Leaf—Fire inherently so and Wind by its association with the hidden village of the Sand—it was something of a prickly endeavor at best.

Which left Hinata as the only person on the Economic Affairs staff in the office, and so responsible for summarizing and filing and preparing reports for the Hokage, various officials, and other departments of all relevant information coming in from Diplomacy Corps field agents, Intelligence, and Infiltration. She had done this sort of leg work for so long that the only things the head of the D.C. asked to look over were Hokage's reports before they were sent out. As Hinata worked through some of the more confidential materials and data that she rarely saw herself, she tried not to think about the implication of the information she was writing out. It was too overwhelming, too frightening.

She had only been at work for an hour or so when the head of the department called for a staff meeting. Hinata set her pen aside. The room was small enough that everyone remained at their desks as the department head, Kurama Suzume stood and leaned against her desk. She was a woman in her sixties and had spent nearly two thirds of her life working for the D.C. and it was reputed that no one, not even the Hyuuga could read anything in her body or face other than what she wanted to convey. That, coupled with her extensive knowledge and strength made her an infallible diplomat-nin. True to her name, she was as drab as a sparrow, her mousy brown hair liberally streaked with grey, and black beady eyes giving nothing away.

"I want to review departmental protocol on highly sensitive information. To anyone working in this department, the current political situation is blindingly obvious. We are unofficially in a war of armament with Sound, and possibly with Rock. Rock might just be opportunistic bastards or they might have their hands deeper in this mess than it looks. Other villages might be involved," she added nodding towards the head of the Ninja Affairs sub-department "and civilian nations may be as well," a nod to the Civilian Affairs.

Hinata felt her mind go blank. To have it all laid out so brutally in the open was at once a relief and crushing.

"Every jounin certainly knows this, they would have to be blind not to. But the civs certainly don't and there's no sense of creating a panic over a cold war by leaking the info beyond advanced ninja and certain departments. I know I don't have to warn y'all beyond that." Suzume unfolded her arms, straightened, and returned to her seat. "Now get back to work until lunch," she growled, the twinkle in her eyes and the slight smile belying her words.

It took a while for Hinata to bring herself to focus on the report in front of her again. The fact that Kurama-buchou was even issuing the warning indicated the severity of the situation. Hinata had suspected something of this nature was afoot for months now, but the information she had access to was so level and so tenuous that there was no danger of her really leaking anything or convincing anyone.

As she returned to her work, Hinata's Hyuuga sense of the subtle, which she had been often praised for in this line of work fraught with subtleties of human behavior, caused her to realize that the entire meeting had been for her benefit. Everyone else in the department had been working there long enough to know the protocol regarding such sensitive information. Rather than singling her out and pointing out her ignorance, Kurama-buchou, had made it a matter of routine departmental policy review. This was what she appreciated most about working at the D.C.—they treated her like a full member of their staff, rather than an always disappointing burden.

* * *

Sakura didn't even bother looking around at Ichiraku for new faces anymore as she waited for Naruto. After years of frequenting the place, she was too used to the homey decor, the unassuming food, and the friendly clientele and staff that she recognized at sight. It was the sort of restaurant that catered to regulars.

She had just muttered, "The idiot could at least be on time!" when an orange whirlwind spun into the restaurant muttering, "Sorry! Sorry! Sakura-chan, but Kakashi-sensei wouldn't let me go!"

The teammates had just started to catch up and their orders had just barely arrived when another whirlwind—this one kicking up much more dust and creating much more sound—disrupted the restaurant and made Sakura appreciate just how much Naruto had matured. Without bothering to turn around Sakurra let out a resigned sigh. "Come on, Konohamaru, can't you come in here like a normal person?"

But the boy ignored her entirely, and hopping on a stool next to Naruto, pulled out a battered envelope with great flourish, "Here, Naruto-nii!"

Naruto, noodles slurping from his mouth, took the stained and slightly torn envelope from the younger boy and turned it over in his hands.

"Aburame Hotaru from my class told me to give it to you since her cousin doesn't know where you live."

"Who the heck is Aburame Hotaru?" Naruto puzzled. "And do I even know her cousin?"

But Konohamaru didn't hear; having discharged his duty, the younger boy had promptly gotten up to place his order and look around eagerly, hoping to see the white-eyed girl of his dreams and sighed dejectedly when he realized she wasn't there.

Curiosity writ large on her face, Sakura poked her teammate in the arm, "Just open it!"

"What the hell is this?" Naruto asked after glancing at the card, utterly baffled. Sakura, who had not so surreptitiously been trying to read the note over Naruto's shoulder, took that as permission to grab it from him.

"Here, let me see—'The Aburame Clan requests the honor of your presence...' Oh my god! Naruto, Shino's getting married!"

Sometimes, Naruto thought he would never understand girls. "Didn't we already know that?"

"No, I mean they've set a date. And you're invited! Well, to the engagement reception they're having in Leaf, anyway."

"Oh. What does that mean?"

"It means that they're having a party to celebrate their engagement which means..." Naruto was lost in thought as Sakura continued on with a more detailed explanation. He had never been to a party before. Or well, to the sort of party where he knew people, one that was special to an occasion. During his travels with Jiraiya, the pervert had dragged him to several rather unsavory ones with free-flowing cheap liquor and couples huddled in corners. It had all felt sort of depressing, watching people staggering around drunkenly with strangers.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, are you coming too?" he asked, not noticing the vein ticking in her forehead at his interruption.

"No, I didn't get an invitation and I'm kind of surprised that you did. But I guess you know Shino a bit better than anyone else outside his teammates...Never mind all that, we don't have time for this!" Sakura gasped, realization dawning on her. "I bet you don't have a single suit! Come on, get up!" she tugged at the sleeve of Naruto's jacket. She'd just have to sacrifice her lunch hour for the greater good and take Naruto shopping. She didn't trust him not to find a glittering orange tuxedo.

Konohamaru shook his head as he watched the pink-haired harpy drag poor Naruto-niichan away and again realized how fortunate he was in his own choice of his own gentle angel.

After years of shopping under Ino's tutelage, Sakura knew one began in the high-end stores and worked her way down. Faced with the reluctance of some of the storeclerks in helping them, Sakura only had to punch one wall in irritation and leave behind a spiderweb of cracks before they began receiving service. Naruto was measured within an inch of his life; Sakura thought she would never stop laughing at Naruto's ear-splitting yelp of "Hey, what the _fuck_ do you think you're doing, you perv!" to the poor man who had tried to measure Naruto's inside leg. But she had just gotten him to try on the first tuxedo when he had looked at the price and insisted on changing back into his own clothes. He had walked out of the store before Sakura even had the chance to stop him.

"Hey, wait! Naruto! You can't just quit after trying _one_!" she called, jogging slightly to catch up with him.

"Sakura-chan, did you see how many zeros there were on that price tag?! And that was for _renting_! I didn't even know you could rent clothes! I can't afford that!"

Sakura decided that she had to modify Ino's shopping method, and so went straight for the bargain stores, aiming for a suit rather than a tux. This time, Naruto insisted on looking at prices before "letting anyone put their hands anywhere."

"This is no good. Sakura-chan, I'd still have to shell out my life savings to buy any of these!"

Sakura felt foolish all of a sudden. Of course everyone didn't make her extravagant salary. Being a chuunin ninja and a much more advanced medic-nin who worked over 8 hours a day, she raked in a nice tidy sum each week. Ninja who relied primarily on missions for their income were more likely to live paycheck to paycheck unless they were jounin level. And since Naruto was still a genin and an orphan, he probably just barely eked out a living.

Her head bowed in guilt, "Hey, Naruto," she said softly as the two of them left the store and walked further down the street, "why don't you take the chuunin exam? I heard from Tsuande-shishou that you said it would be a betrayal of your teammates." And then she whispered the question that felt like a lump in her throat, "Do you think I betrayed you?"

"What?"

"I took the chuunin exam while you were on that training trip. And now Shizune-sensei says that if I develop something original in my medical research project, she'll nominate me for Special Jounin as a medic-nin so that I can have clearance to work with regulated poisons and such."

"Sakura-chan, that's not the same thing. You have to do this, don't you, to become a better ninja, to learn more stuff that'll help us when it's time?

"Well, yeah, but then, why don't you just take it?" Sakura responded, feeling guilty and thinking back to Tsunade's explanation—the older woman had asked her to try to convince Naruto for his own good, and seeing this proof of Naruto's poverty, Sakura realized how right the Hokage was. "It'll make your life so much easier. You'll get more money, you'll have better medical coverage, and—"

"Don't you understand, Sakura-chan? I can't! I don't have time to waste right now on anything until I can bring that bastard back, whether he wants to or not! The exam won't be back in Leaf for another year or more and I don't have time to haul ass to Mist or wherever. There's too much I need to do." And then, just barely loud enough for Sakura to catch it, "I need to get stronger, to catch up to him."

Sakura felt a chill run up her spine, hearing Naruto echo Sasuke-kun's words, even as she knew it was silly for they could not have meant two entirely different things with the same sentiments had they tried. Her heart still ached at the thought of Sasuke-kun, but she was honest enough to acknowledge the truth facing her. Sasuke-kun had sacrificed his friends for his ambition and Naruto was sacrificing his ambition for his friend.

As if somehow sensing her grief, Naruto turned to her and said with his Good Guy Promise pose, "Don't worry Sakura-chan! We'll get him back in no time!"

And of course, there was nothing Sakura could do in response to that but smile and thwap him in the head. "Idiot."

"You're just trying to distract me from shopping—"

"But I told you, I don't have enough money to—"

But Sakura was already cutting him off. "Oh drat! I need get back to work! But there's one more place we absolutely need to try. Naruto, make sure to meet at the hospital tomorrow during lunch or I'll hunt you down! We still have one more shopping stop to make!" the departing kunoichi called out as she hopped roofs to make it back to the hospital before her shift started.

Naruto heaved a gusty sigh of relief. At least the torture was over for today. He wished Konohamaru had never found him.

* * *

Hinata had been practicing for over an hour with her byakugan activated intermittently. It was for training. Not for checking to see if Naruto-kun was in his garden near the training grounds. Definitely not for that. And it was just a matter of fortunate circumstance when she noticed his presence.

Casually, she headed that way, trying to bolster her courage with the reminder of his invitation to stop by and garden with him. She saw him long before he noticed her. He had flung his jacket to the side and rolled up his pant legs to his knees under the force of the hot summer sun. Before she could lose her nerve, he noticed her.

"Hey, Hinata-chan, you came!" he called out, trying to ignore the strange pang he felt at the thought.

Something of the warmth in his eyes made Hinata feel she must be blushing from her head to her toes. "H-h-h-hi N-Naruto-kun," was the best she could manage.

"Hey, don't be all formal," he grinned, "Come on in!"

She hopped over the gateless fence and stood uncertainly. "Um, what should I do?"

"Well, first, we need to clear out the weeds, and then we can take stock of where we stand."

Soon, they fell into an easy working pattern, chatting all the while as the work hardly needed any thought. Hinata apologized again for monopolizing his afternoon with her training the other day and asked how his own was going and soon they were discussing elemental chakra theory.

"I-I didn't think you studied that much theory, Naruto-kun."

"Well, I didn't until Kakashi-sensei said it was guaranteed to make me figure out how to use it better. So I made a bunch of clones and slogged through every scroll I could get my hands on. The headache when I dispelled them all was fierce, though."

Hinata wiped away yet another trickle of sweat. "Wow, the sun is really something, isn't it? I wish I'd brought my canteen!"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, taking off his sweat-soaked shirt and drying his face on it before tossing the scrunched garment near his jacket. "My apartment's near by if you want to take a break and get a drink."

Hinata blushed so hard at both his suggestion and his appearance that she wouldn't be surprised if she was actually glowing. Looking over at the lobster-red girl, Naruto added, "Yeah, we should definitely take a break, Hinata-chan, you look like you're getting a really bad sunburn! I can practically see you turning redder!"

But all crippling shyness that had overcome fled the instant she noticed the bruises all over his chest and upper arms as they walked towards his apartment. "Naruto-kun," she gasped, "I-is this because of me?" Her embarrassment forgotten in her concern, she gently touched an angry looking bruise on his shoulder—it was the ugly bluish yellow that bruises became right before healing.

Looking down at the worry in her eyes, her butterfly soft touch on his arm, Naruto felt that same strange sensation from yesterday, which had left him feeling as if the world was not its usual shape. "Um, no. I mean, don't worry about it Hinata-chan," he managed to stammer.

"Here," she said, pulling out a jar of ointment from the small training pack she'd brought with her. "A-apply this before going to bed. It'll help relax the muscles and help the bruises heal faster," Hinata explained, the guilt written plainly on her face.

Without thinking, he lifted her chin up with hand. "Hey, don't worry about it. I mean it, Hinata-chan. If I catch you worrying, I'll..." he trailed off, face scrunching up in an effort to think of an appropriate threat.

Hinata blushed and laughed alternately. "Ok, I get it."

Her quiet laugh seemed to jolt through him, and suddenly, Naruto felt self-conscious with his hand touching her face. He dropped his arm to his side awkwardly. "Come on," he exclaimed loudly, trying to cover his embarrassment, "let's go get that water!"

* * *

This was only the second time Hinata had seen Naruto's dilapidated apartment.

The first time, she had been rushed, trying to find Naruto-kun to tell him she had nabbed the elusive Toad Hermit in their plan and she had hardly noticed her surroundings. This time, she took in the boarded up windows in surprise, the graffiti covered walls, the crooked doors. "Doesn't anyone else live here?" she asked astonished.

"Nah, there were a couple of people when I first moved in, but after a couple of years, they started leave. The landlord doesn't live on the property so he doesn't answer if you complain and doesn't take care of the repairs and stuff. I think people got fed up and moved out. But it's not like I have anywhere else to go."

As Naruto tugged at his front door which tended to stick, Hinata stood back. At last the door opened.

"Hmmm." The disapproval was clear in her voice and Naruto suddenly felt a little embarrassed of the only home he'd ever known. No one besides Team 7 had seen it, and none of them, even that asshole Sasuke, had disapproved of its shabbiness.

But her disapproval, apparently wasn't directed at the apartment. "How can your landlord do that? I'm sure that's illegal. If he's collecting rent, your landlord has to at least address all complaints tenants have." Naruto was surprised at the anger in her voice.

"I'm sure that's a housing violation—it came up in the last town-council meeting. Naruto-kun, do you know the man's name? Maybe I can look into it and file a complaint." And suddenly, her mind had caught up with her mouth and she blushed, staring at her feet. She had always felt to devastatingly self-conscious in his presence that Hinata couldn't even begin to imagine what had led her to speak so freely. Naruto-kun must think her the worst sort of interfering busybody. "I-I'm sorry. T-this is none of my b-business. I, I d-didn't m-mean to be s-so rude."

But Naruto hadn't even heard her mumbled apology she realized when she made herself look up at last. He'd gone into the little kitchenette and Hinata heard the sound of running water as he called out, "I think his name's Tanaka something."

He reappeared, a glass of water in hand, "Here." he said handing it to her. "If it's not too much work for you to do it, I'd really appreciate you looking into it. There's a leak I've been wanting fixed for _years_!"

* * *

Hinata wanted to fidget all through dinner that evening. She couldn't wait to get to the Leaf Public Library to get to the bottom of Naruto-kun's housing mystery and so do a small favor to help repay the boy who had done so much for her even before he began helping her with Jiraiya-sama and her training. But she couldn't afford to fidget. After last night's performance, she knew that she would be watched more carefully than ever.

And so, she did her best to be as meek, and unnoticeable as possible.

* * *

She pored over public housing records for hours that night, at last digging up information on retired chuunin Tanaka Jiro, owner of a small apartment building with eight housing units total. But as Hinata went through all the information she had found on Tanaka Jiro, she realized that there had to be some sort of mistake. This man had been dead for six years.

The more digging she did in public records on the man, the more of a legal mess she unearthed. It was unclear who owned the building at this point. It might technically have reverted back to the village, but since the deed was still in the dead man's name things were murky. Notary records indicated he had no will on file, and look in the birth registry showed he didn't seem to have any close living relations anyway.

Naruto-kun's money had been piling up in the bank account of a dead man for the past six years and no one had bothered to check on it. She wondered if it was all a matter of accident and coincident or if the malice and negligence that was often directed at Naruto-kun was at play here. But such thoughts wouldn't help her figure out how to proceed.

But then, the crackling PA system was announcing that the library was closing in 15 minutes. And Hinata sat up in astonishment, realizing it was nearly 11. She had spent hours on this. It was certainly a worthy cause, but she couldn't help but think of the scroll on sealing that she had yet to open. After all the trouble she and Naruto-kun had gone to in acquiring it, she couldn't really justify her hesitancy in reading it beyond an irrational fear that the long-desired knowledge would not give her the answer she wanted. That somehow, she would find written in large letters in the scroll that it was impossible to remove the Hyuuga cursed seal.

But she was being a coward and she knew it. Clearing up her papers, Hinata resolved to wake up early the next morning and open that scroll no matter what. She wouldn't budge until she had skimmed the entire thing. She couldn't let superstitious fears stop her now.

She would stare truth in the face. And if wasn't the answer she wanted, well she would start from the beginning and find a new path because that was her ninja way.

* * *

_To be continued..._


	21. Chapter 21

_A/N 1/2/09: My first chapter of the new year! So this ahead of schedule update is brought to you courtesy of my beta __**mech pencil name**__,__ who has inspired me to spend way more time on writing fanfic than I should. _

_Also, **please go vote on a new title for this fic** (the poll is on my profile). If you don't like any of the options, feel free to email/PM me an idea! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto._

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_Just do it fast_, Hinata mentally berated herself. _Like pulling out a kunai. Everyone knows it hurts less that way_, she thought as she eyed the nondescript scroll sitting before her.

The sun had not risen yet and she sat in the gloom created by the low table lamp set beside her. She had even cleared her desk for the occasion. Or at least organized all the paper, books, and scrolls to create the semblance of orderliness.

Her hands lingered over the "restricted" stamp near the center, which indicated that the information within could only be given out with the approval of a jounin. Marking information as restricted was really less for the benefit of the village than for that of the unprepared ninja who might be killed by her own foolhardiness. Of course, Hinata knew this meant that Jiraiya-sama had not given her anything with sensitive—and probably helpful for her cause—enough information that leaking it could endanger the village. Such information would have been stamped with a scarlet "forbidden."

She tugged the simple white ribbon tied around the scroll and unrolled a few inches.

_The Theory and Practice of the First Level of Sealing and Unsealing: Inanimate Elements_

She unrolled further and found, just as the sage had promised her, the scroll was a more detailed and technical version of his own explanation. Skimming through, she realized the scroll gave a more in-depth account of how seals worked and how one would create them more than anything else. Hinata sat back with a sigh, slightly disappointed.

Well, that was not quite what she had hoped for, but it would help. After all, developing an _uncursed_ seal to protect the secrets of the byakugan was as much a part of her plan as getting rid of the cursed seal. On more reflection, perhaps it would make her entire plan more viable if she could figure out how to develop a new seal and convince the Main family to adopt it. Then there would be greater political pressure from the Branch to do away with the cursed seal and perhaps it wouldn't be as uphill a battle as trying to convince the clan to abolish the cursed seal at once.

There might be merits to this plan. But to do so, she'd have to look into how the current seal actually worked. There were no written records or accounts of it as far as she could determine; of course she'd keep reading those Hyuuga journals, just in case. But perhaps the more efficacious route would be to examine an existing cursed seal. Just how she would manage to pull that off was beyond her. At any rate, learning about sealing couldn't hurt and it didn't mean that she would have to stop looking for information on unsealing. And surely sealing itself would help her learn about unsealing.

With such thoughts in mind, she renewed her examination of the scroll, bearing down on the words and diagrams with all the focused attention she had developed through countless research projects at the Diplomacy Corps.

Hinata was surprised to learn that the basis of all ninjutsu was really a form of sealing. A jutsu was really nothing more than a temporary seal—channeling and shaping chakra for an instant of time and thus temporary handseals sufficed. Although few today were aware of it, handseals themselves were based on zodiacal interpretations of an ancient language called Sanskrit from long vanished kingdoms of the West where chakra manipulation had first developed. She would have to reread the scroll again just to better grasp the theory and the history itself was fascinating. But there was no time for that now and understanding the theoretical side of ninjutsu was a detour at best.

She had just reached the concluding paragraphs as sunlight flooded the east-facing window of her room:

_A seal acts against the very nature of chakra by placing it where it should not be or altering pre-existing pathways. _ _Sealing and unsealing therefore, must always come at a cost, whether for the sealer or the sealed, the unsealer or the unsealed. These principle elements of sealing discussed here apply even more at the higher levels. _

_The key differences are the scale on which they apply. The more powerful the seal, the greater care is needed. Just as a simple jutsu can be done without elaborate handseals, a simple written seal can be rendered in the vernacular. But for the truly powerful seal, Sanskrit, the language of the ancient religions must be called upon. Yet even with this variation in mind, the principles involved in the First Levels of sealing apply to the higher. To bend chakra to his will, one must hold fast the pattern of words._

There had been diagrams illustrating the most common seals for inanimate objects. They were indeed in the vernacular, although the characters used were the more archaic ones that Hinata had only seen in old poetry. In theory, she should be able to create her own sealing scrolls to carry weapons and paper now. She was cutting it close—she'd just have time to meet Neji-niisan for their usual morning training—but she couldn't resist trying out her new-found knowledge.

Taking one of the many blank scrolls piled on her desk, Hinata unrolled six inches or so. She found the relevant diagram in the sealing scroll. It was strange really—the characters used made only the vaguest sense in terms of content. According to the scroll, the words chosen for sealing were not chosen precisely for their meaning, but based on a combination of variables: brushstrokes direction and count, numerological calculations, and sound associations between the vernacular character and ancient Sanskrit sutras.

As Hinata copied out the words with careful calligraphy, she realized that a study of Sanskrit would be vital; the scroll had mentioned that the primary reason developing new seals was so challenging was that few had the dedication and acumen necessary to learn the ancient and difficult tongue well enough to experiment with it. She wondered if she could manage. She wasn't even sure where she could begin learning this Sanskrit; she was certain she hadn't seen any books on the subject in the Main or Branch libraries...

Hinata bit her lip in concentration; eyes closed, she placed her hand over the characters she had just written and held fast the pattern of the words in her mind's eyes, willing chakra to flow in the path created by the words as the directions had indicated. She felt the tingling sensation of chakra flowing out of her hand.

She opened her eyes and peered at her handiwork. That was odd. The words she had written out seemed to be shaking. All of a sudden, one of the characters she had written down split open and Hinata felt a little explosion of chakra sting her face.

It seemed she had put too much chakra for the seal to hold. She'd have to review that chapter before experimenting further. But there was no time for that now, Hinata realized looking at the small clock on her table. She was late for her spar with Neji-niisan!

* * *

Hinata arrived at the garden they trained in out of breath—she'd practically flown from her room—to find her cousin going through a graceful shadow dance with his ANBU katana. His face was blank, as if the motions were effortless, yet she could see his body straining as he pushed his muscles to the edge and made them balance there. She stood to the side and watched, a small surge of despair tinged with a hopeless envy washed over her. She would never be able to even touch him.

He finished a last agile movement, and nodded in acknowledgement to her profuse apology. He did not look angry at having been kept waiting and she reflected over what a long way they had come.

"Come, Hinata-sama. Let's see if you can reproduce yesterday's impressive performance. We will have breakfast afterwards if there's time to discuss your improvement."

Hinata smiled. Yes, they had come a long way.

Hinata asked for an earlier stop to their spar than usual. Since Neji-niisan had gone out of his way to express a desire for them to eat and talk together, she wanted to make sure that there was time to do so.

Over the light fare of miso soup, rice, and grilled fish that Hinata's Branch maid laid out for them in the room overlooking the garden, Neji had inquired into just what had brought about Hinata's sudden improvement in the jyuuken. They'd discussed her training with Naruto.

"It, it was as if something finally clicked for me, about how the jyuuken strike works," Hinata explained, stirring her soup with her chopsticks idly. She felt more at ease with her cousin in this one conversation than she had ever before and so she ventured before she had the chance to think through and therefore second guess the idea that had been percolating in her mind since early this morning.

"N-neji-niisan," she ventured in a voice so nervous that it got Neji's full attention. "I-I w-wonder if I could t-talk to you a-at some p-point about s-some...research I am w-w-working on." How she could possibly ask that they meet outside the Hyuuga compound subtly she did not know, but hoped that the desperation in her eyes would convey the need for secrecy.

Neji had wondered what was preoccupying his cousin lately, but it was not his nature to meddle in the affairs of others. She rarely looked well-rested, constantly buried in books, spending much of her time in the Hyuuga library. He knew it could not all be work related and had speculated that she was working on a new jutsu of some sort. Any shinobi worth his salt attempted to develop a signature jutsu. The process was time intensive and often frustrating. Thus, while such attempts at developing new jutsu were common, success hardly was. Her nervous request, the unstated desire to meet elsewhere, seemed to confirm his suspicion about her project.

He did not know how he felt about the request. It was at once presumptuous to think that he would help her with such a project considering their history and also a great sign of trust considering their history. She had earned his trust and respect over and over since that moment. He wondered, fleetingly, what he had ever done to earn hers and it was this thought that decided him.

"After I return from today's mission. In three days, Training Area 11."

Hinata breathed a little sigh of relief. Not only because Neji-niisan had agreed to at least hear her out, but also because his ANBU team was scheduled to leave this evening; his mission would at least give her some time to figure out how to broach the topic of cursed seals and how they work on a deeply technical level with her prickly cousin.

* * *

Now that she had potentially set into motion one element of her plan to rid the Hyuuga of the cursed seal, Hinata was a bundle of nerves. Until now the plan had been confined to her, then extended to Naruto-kun. She'd hardly revealed anything to Jiraiya-sama. But if she really wanted to study how the cursed seal worked, she knew she would have to involve others. Neji-niisan as the Branch member she was closest to was the most logical choice, but that still did not make the whole mess any better. And she'd have to eventually get some experts in the field involved too. How could she do all this without tipping her hand and getting executed for treason or disowned by the clan?

Well, restricting her plan to developing a new Hyuuga seal for the Main family while explaining it to her co-conspirators would help with the treason charge. But if she framed her goal as a method of merely protecting the Main family, would Neji-niisan even be willing to help her? Would he be resentful if she simply claimed her goal was to create a new seal that would protect the Main family? Would it look to him as yet another betrayal in a series of never-ending betrayals of the Branch by the Main? Or would he be able to read the implications for the Branch house such a plan would inherently possess?

With all these frantic thoughts running through her head, she was a mess at work that morning, but fortunately no one commented, although they certainly noticed. After misplacing the same file for the fifth time, Hinata forced herself to take a deep breath and think only of the reports in front of her.

It helped a little. _Just take it in small pieces_, she scolded herself. _That's how you got this far. _Before her pessimistic streak could take over and reflect that she hadn't gotten very far at all, she reminded herself that she still had three days to plan out her meeting with Neji-niisan and think out the next phase in her plan.

* * *

Lunch Time Errands: Part One

Sakura waited outside the hospital, tapping her foot in impatience. All those years with Kakashi-sensei as her jounin instructor had made her even worse at waiting patiently. But fortunately, Naruto, also having been on a team with Kakashi-sensei knew just how much the lack of punctuality tended to annoy her.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Can we get this over with quick? I haven't had lunch yet and I have to go—"

"Don't worry, this'll be quick," Sakura interrupted, a self-satisfied smile on her face. Grabbing an arm, Sakura dragged a resigned Naruto back to the same clothing-store lined street.

"But we looked at all these yesterday, didn't we?"

"What're you talking about? We hardly went into a handful. But you can stop looking so miserable now! I went back yesterday after work and picked out something I think will work. I asked them to hold it so you could try it on and make sure it fits."

"Man, this makes me just not want to go to Shino's party or whatever. It'd be easier to just go on a mission or something instead."

"Quit grumbling. Come on."

Sakura had thought long and hard about their conversation from the day before. She hadn't given a second thought to taking the chuunin exam while Naruto was on his training trip. In many ways, she'd felt a relief at being left behind by both her teammates—as if she'd finally found room to grow and develop on her own without worrying about both their towering shadows. She'd not even paused to think what it would mean for the memory of Team 7 to take the exam again, this time alone. And Ino and Chouji had needed a third teammate to get through the prelims since Shikamaru was already a chuunin and it had seemed to make sense at the time to enter with them.

It felt like an undeserved luxury now. For Naruto, making chuunin would be another definite step towards his lifelong goal and yet he was putting it on hold—because of Sasuke, because of the promise she had made him take, because of Team 7.

But she couldn't change the past. Nothing had taught her that more firmly than Sasuke-kun's defection. But that didn't make her helpless _now_. No one had taught her that more clearly than Naruto. Apologies, expressions of regret, those were meaningless. Or at least, meant less than results. Working as a medic-nin, she knew the truth of that more than most; comforting words often felt hollow to a patient until signs of recovery became evident.

She'd never paid much attention to Naruto's financial difficulties when they had been genin together. She'd been too busy being disgusted by his ugly clothes (although from what she could discern, his love of the color orange seemed to be genuine), cheap lunches (although, again, from what she could tell, his love for ramen seemed to be true), and at times unwashed body-odor to think out the cause. And much to her embarrassment, she hadn't realized it even now until the reality of the matter had struck her in the face yesterday.

As she made Naruto turn around so she could check the fitting on the suit—a dark brown three-piece (the unusual color had made it somewhat more affordable), with an orange tie she'd picked out separately with a fond smile for Naruto's idiosyncrasies—Sakura conceded it would be a small gesture. But better to start somewhere rather than nowhere at all.

She turned to the hovering clerk as Naruto grimaced his boredom into the mirror. "Yes, we'll take it. Can you deliver it once the alterations are complete?"

Before the clerk could rush off to mark down the order, Naruto's blunt voice exclaimed, "Hey, wait a minute Sakura-chan. We talked about this yesterday. I can't afford anything like this."

Sakura turned back to her teammate. She was glad beyond words that Naruto had gotten over his infatuation with her, otherwise she'd never be able to bring herself to respond without dreading Naruto's overblown and misguided reaction. "You don't have to. It's a gift." She smiled. "From me."

The completely stunned look on his face was funny but also sad. As if he'd never expect her to be capable of doing something like this. "I can't take this Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled and said carelessly, "Think of it as an early birthday present."

A frown marred his face, "No, this is just charity. Do you even know when my birthday is?"

The clerk had wisely walked off with a mumbled "I'll check again when you're ready" but Sakura couldn't help feeling all the eyes trained on them. The other customers, the staff, they were unabashedly eavesdropping.

Sakura flushed in embarrassment, "Well...sort of...ok, not really. But I couldn't think who to ask. Kakashi-sensei can barely remember what time it is now, so that was hopeless, and Tsunade-shishou was too busy. So, when is it?"

"October 10th."

"Oh." She did not have an answer to that. "The Fourth's memorial."

But Sakura could be as hardheaded as Naruto when the occasion required—which tended to be around Naruto himself. "That still makes it an early birthday present. Besides, we're teammates."

"So? I don't go around buying you things. And Sasuke sure as hell didn't go around buying either of us—"

"Aren't you listening to me, Naruto?" There was an edge to her voice now. That last remark would sting if she let him complete it. Couldn't he see she wasn't the same stupid, ignorant girl she'd been back as a genin? That she understood at last, to her sorrow, the meaning of teammates _because_ of Sasuke-kun's betrayal? "We're teammates. So we're supposed to help each other out, work together, do things we can't do on our own."

Something of the desperation in Sakura's voice made Naruto pause. His pride had chafed a bit at just how token her offer had been initially. He didn't need or want pity from his friends and that is just what her gift had felt like. But it seemed there was much more to this. "Ok," he agreed at last, and trying for a lighter note, "I'll make it up to you by giving you the coolest missions when I'm Hokage."

"Ugh. You can keep the coolest missions. They probably involve lots of explosions. Besides," Sakura added, teasing back, "I just don't want to delay our mission to get Sasuke-kun back because Shino's future-in-laws had their scorpions maul you for showing up to the engagement party in training gear."

"I'd like to see them _try_!"

* * *

Lunch Time Errands: Part Two

Hinata organized her copies of Naruto-kun's housing files as she waited for an appointment with one of the property law experts on the Village council. She'd met Matsuda Kaneshiro through the town council meetings she had to attend as a scribe and chuunin honor guard of the Hokage. Matsuda Kaneshiro was one of the youngest members of the civilian representatives to the council and his ambitious nature as well as his know-how and expertise were well-known. She hoped to use all three to her advantage.

Based on his reputation alone, Hinata knew that if it was at all possible, Matsuda-san would try to use this housing mix-up to strengthen his position on the housing committee. But to do so, he would have to make sure the problem got as much attention as possible, which hopefully would lead to it being resolved as fairly and quickly as possible.

The secretary ushered her into the spacious office, and Matsuda-san rose to greet her. "Hyuuga Hinata-san is it?" he asked, peering down at the form she'd filled out earlier in the waiting room. "I don't believe we've met?" he asked with a frown as he tried to place her face in his memory.

"I record some of the Hokage's town council meetings for the Diplomacy Corps."

"Ah! I'd thought you looked familiar. Now, Hyuuga-san, how may I help you?"

"I would like some legal advice regarding a confused housing situation on behalf of..." she was about to say "Uzumaki Naruto," but had a moment of doubt—perhaps it was unjust of her to think Matsuda-san would treat Naruto-kun with the same unfairness, neglect, and malice she'd observed as a lovesick Academy student trailing after Naruto-kun secretly—and so, concluded lamely with "a friend."

Matsuda was an astute man. After all, he hadn't gotten as far as fast as he had without paying attention to such things. But he merely raised his eyebrows at this peculiarity in her noticeably failing to name the claimant and remained silent as she explained the situation in greater detail. The girl was, after all, the potential Hyuuga heiress and he could gain some political clout by assisting her.

"I see, my dear," he responded as he pored over the housing record, property holdings, and death certificate of Tanaka Jiro, Naruto's landlord. "You've done some very thorough research here. Hang on just a moment while I have my legal aides confirm some of these records."

That old instinct for success never failed him, he gloated internally as he left the room briefly and set his legal aides scampering. "Make it snappy and accurate," he ordered them.

If the girl was right, this could be blown into the biggest housing scandal of the year and would guarantee him the chairmanship of the housing committee if he could frame himself in the role of whistleblower. But he had to make sure the Hyuuga girl didn't go to anyone else. He'd have to convince her he'd get the best deal for her.

He returned to his office and seated himself with aplomb. "Now, as I said, that's some fine research you had there, but we want to confirm everything and make sure it's watertight. And if it is, if you leave this case in my hands to settle with the town council, I can assure you that all the back rent—six years worth of rent!—will be returned to the tenants as no one was overseeing the buildings and keeping up safety codes etc. If there's no will on file—and given that no one has come forth in these six years, I'm sure you're right that there is none—means that the man didn't have anyone to bequeath his possessions to. Sad, but not uncommon in your line of work," he added with a deferential gesture at her forehead protector.

"So, if you leave this case with me, I'll assure that the building is reclaimed by the village and made part of the new public housing initiative, which will help decrease the rent for your friend significantly in addition to that backlog of rent he'll get back. And if all this goes through, most likely one of the current residents will be named supervisor and made responsible for repairs and such, with some monetary compensation for his troubles, and all rent paid by tenants would become revenue for the Village. So really, it would be in the best interest of your friend to entrust me with—"

There was a light knocking on the door and a young woman entered bearing a hefty folder. "Here, sir, are the files you asked for." Hinata looked at the woman in surprise. It had taken her hours to assemble all that information and it looked like Matsuda-san's legal aides had pulled it all together in less than half an hour. But then again, they were experts in the field and knew where to look.

Matsuda turned to Hinata apologetically and said, "A moment while I have a word with my staff."

He ushered the younger woman out and closed the door behind him, asking in a quick whisper, "Do the client's documents check out?"

"Yes, it's all as she says—dead landlord, no clear legal claims, no oversight. It's unclear right now who to pin this on, but probably Public Safety and Housing and Property Committee" the aide ticked off each department on her fingers, "and perhaps Ninja-Civilian Affairs too, for gross negligence. But it's the tenant I'm worried about, boss."

"Tenant?"

"Yes, tenant as in singular. Something might be fishy here."

"Well, it's no surprise—the building's a small one anyway and after years of disrepair, it's no surprise if people left. Do you think there's a whiff of scandal around the remaining tenant we could get splattered with? A criminal or something?"

"Well, no. But privacy protection laws were invoked by the Third. So we know he's not a criminal, but not much else. Doesn't state his name or anything. Maybe we should check—"

"I've no time for this. The Hyuuga heiress is waiting and if that tenant's got her support, it can't be all that bad. I need to convince the girl we're the best offer." He hurried back.

"I apologize for the interruption, Hyuuga-san. Now, as I was saying, I think I can make your friend the best offer if you agree to leave this case solely in my hands. You would have to agree not to consult elsewhere."

The last part in particular made Hinata hesitate. No one in the Diplomacy Corps in their right mind would accept such a proposal. "But what guarantee would I have of any of this?"

He had hoped to avoid this, but the girl seemed shrewd. "Ah, well, I'm afraid I can't guarantee the outcome per se. But I _can_ guarantee my full support. In fact, how's this? The next regularly scheduled town council meeting won't be for another month, but as you most likely know, we're convening an emergency budget meeting for water and sanitation next week. I'll make sure that we make some time at the end to bring this up before the council."

"And" Matsuda-san added in the tone of one conferring a special favor as he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and rapidly began filling it, "your friend can appeal directly to the council. I've written out my recommendations on how this issue should be resolved—returning backlogged rent, making the building public housing, and assigning a new supervisor—and signed them. With my written recommendation as an expert in the laws involved and the personal support I'll add at the meeting, everything should be resolved smoothly."

Hinata didn't care for his airs, but frankly, this was all was more than she had hoped for and she smiled as she thanked the man.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Hyuuga-san. Keep in mind your friend will have to come to the meeting and make the appeal on his own behalf. I will see you next week, if not before then at some other town council affair." They both bowed in parting.

Hinata remembered, on her way out, to ask the secretary to send the consultation fee to her Diplomacy Corps address rather than to the Hyuuga compound. No sense in making that storm break any sooner than it had to.

* * *

It wasn't until after dinner that Hinata had an opportunity to track down Naruto-kun and explain matters to him, what with another Diplomacy Corps mission of transcribing a Hokage meeting, training, and research.

The summer sunset was just fading away into dusk even though it was already late in the evening as she walked towards his apartment. But she knocked at his door to no avail. Hinata stood in front of his door unsure of what to do. She been so excited to share the news with him, she hadn't expected Naruto-kun to _not _be home. Well, she decided, taking to the trees, she'd take a quick look in the Training Areas before giving up.

Fortunately, the strategy paid off. She found him sprawled on some rather abused ground in the middle of a clearing that surely had not been there earlier that day.

"N-naruto-kun?"

"Mmph."

"Are you ok?" Kneeling over him, she examined the cuts and bruises scattered over his body. A basic medical jutsu revealed chakra exhaustion. She tried to help him sit up, but he waved her off faintly.

"What happened?"

"Why can't I get this wind elemental chakra thing down, Hinata-chan? I've been trying all day and it's still just crap."

"All day? You mean non-stop?"

"Stopped for lunch."

"Come on, Naruto-kun, I'll help you get up. You should really get something to eat."

"Just let me stay here a little longer. Ugh. Muscles feel like limp, soggy, ramen noodles..."

She sat down beside him, pulling her knees up to her chin. "I looked into your housing situation. You might be able to get some of the rent back."

Naruto smiled up at her sluggishly, "You're the best, Hinata-chan!"

"But you have to go to a town council meeting next week and present your case there. A man named Matsuda Kaneshiro should help. The Hokage will be on your side, but it's good to have someone on the council with you too."

"Won't you come with me?"

"M-me?"

"Yeah, after all, none of this would have happened without you."

Hinata felt her cheeks burn at the compliment and pressed her face against her knees.

"Ready to get up?"

"Five more minutes."

Hinata laughed softly at that. "I can imagine what you must be like in the morning," she replied. Hinata tilted her head back and faced the summer sky. "I haven't looked at the stars in so long."

Naruto turned to face her with a quizzical expression. "What do you mean? They're always there."

"It's a Hyuuga training technique. Activate the byakugan and stare for an hour each night. The star chart you make each evening becomes more and more detailed and complex and your byakugan stronger and stronger." After a small pause, she added in quieter voice, "I, I was never very good at it. "

"Doesn't sound like a lot of fun. But you know, I used to watch the stars too—with Old Man Hokage when I was a kid. He'd try to teach me their names and told me stories about them. But those constellations things always looked bogus to me—it's just a pointy line, not a bear or whatever." A silence, and then a heavy sigh. "I kinda wished I remembered some of them now, though."

Hinata could almost feel the loss and regret in Naruto-kun's voice. "Look," she said, settling down beside him and pointing to the northwest, "there's the swan."

The sad look faded from his eyes a little. "How's that a swan? Just looks like a crooked plus sign."

"The horizontal line's supposed to be outspread wings and there's the neck and tail." She sketched out the shape in the air with her fingers.

"Then the left one's sorta bent and its neck's crooked. Maybe it's turning back to see who's chasing it and..."

Hinata continued pointing out the constellations she had memorized wretchedly during that training where all she seemed to do was fail, never seeing the furthest away stars, the faintest constellations as she should have been able to.

Laughing at the hilarious improbable stories Naruto-kun made up about them, she felt as if the stars must somehow be different, her feelings were so changed towards them now. It was just like Naruto-kun, to be able to change the stars themselves for her.

* * *

_To be continued..._


End file.
